Dragon Age Central

PCGZine, a free online pdf magazine, has an exclusive hands-on preview article that features a few new screenshots. Excerpts follow - the last paragraph contains Origin story plot spoilers.

For the last 15 minutes, the two Elves we’re watching on the screen have been engaging in some proper old-school dungeoneering. Since entering the underground ruins they’ve been ambushed by the walking dead, various vicious traps, spiders the size of bears (not to mention an actual bear covered in spikes known as a ‘Bereskarn’), and these Elves dispatched them all through careful use of skills, tactics and items.

[...]

Those ruins they’re exploring are actually old Elven ruins. [...] when one of them starts reading the Elvish writing off the statue, a conversation option lets you express confusion as to how your friend can even read. [...] in Dragon Age the Elvish civilisation suffered a little setback. [...] the humans of the world [...] managed to enslave the entire Elven race and only recently upgraded their place in society to scrawny servants. The few Elves who’ve fought back [...] have taken refuge in an enormous forest and it’s playing as one of those rebels that makes up one of the game’s six Origins.

Character creation in Dragon Age is as much about you choosing your Origin as your race, class and gender. [...] For example, one of the Origins starts you off as a noble who’s obsessively training against their cosy upbringing to become a great warrior. Or if you choose to be a Mage you have to pick a special Origin that has you battling through the tyrannical schooling that all magic users in the world are forced to undergo. Before Mages can wander the world like free citizens they have to display control over their abilities, with those who can’t (and, horribly, those who are just too gifted) undergoing a kind of magical sterilisation that leaves them slow, emotionless and unable to anything but enchant things.

The general idea is that as well as providing a unique opening to everyone’s game, your chosen Origin keeps popping up, even after the six plots have converged. Your race, upbringing, class, history... all of it changes how people react to you in this prejudiced world.

[...]

nothing in Dragon Age is good or evil, nothing is right or wrong [...], the only consequences of your choices are the physical and emotional consequences in the world and in your chosen party. [...] Every party member gets a percentile bar in their stats that shows their current opinion of you - a bar you can give a boost by giving away special ‘gift’ items to them.

Returning to the Elf origin one more time, it’s one of these choices that kicks everything off once you first pick the origin. On an otherwise calm and safe day, you and your old friend pounce on three humans trespassing through ‘your’ patch of forest. The humans claim they’ve lost their way, but now they’ve found where you live, if they return home the secret could spread. So your options are to let them go, kill one to scare them or slaughter them all. I ended up killing one of them right there in cold blood, and I always play lovely men in RPGs. But letting them go just felt too foolish. Like I’d be betraying my race over squeamishness. So up came the arrow and down went the main, his friends screaming in terror.

This article is in german; certain new details about the game were translated and discussed by Sir Karl on the official forums - his notes are presented below.

25% of all dialogue lines belong to party banter and dialogue with party members.

Magic:
There are four schools of magic:
Primal
Creation
Spirit
Entropy

Entropy has eg weakness and fear inducing spells, while Creation gives acces to magical shields and reanimation of corpses.

Resistances:
There are three types of resistances:
Mind (against magic)
Body (against enemy attack skills)
Dodge (against traps)

Attributes:
There are seven attributes of your character:
Strength
Dexterity
Willpower
Magical ability (probably a bad translation on my part) [probably meant to be mana/stamina]
Intelligence
Constitution

Combat:
You can fine tune combat AI of your teammates, eg tell them to automatically heal party members whose health drops below 25%.

There will be a specialization for two weapons fighting.

[...]
you’ll start your game by creating a single character from what appears to be a predefined list, including such career paths as "human noble warrior" and "elf mage." After you’ve chosen which sort of character you’ll play, you’ll then go through an "origins" prelude section that should take two to three hours to complete.
[...]
The world of Dragon Age is currently being torn apart by war against an invading horde of monsters, and while your character has, by virtue of completing his or her origin storyline, become a "Gray Warden" enlisted by the nation’s king himself to help fight the good fight, you won’t always be given preferred treatment. For instance, elves are essentially treated as second-class citizens, so if you opt to play an elf character, you can expect to receive shabby treatment from humans.
[...]
Dragon Age’s dialogue takes place by way of Neverwinter Nights-style numbered responses that may be insulting, polite, or humorous--or give you the opportunity to use your characters’ speech-related abilities, such as persuasion or intimidation. You may also find yourself connecting more closely with certain characters depending on both your character’s conversation skills and your character’s origin. The human noble warrior, for instance, might get a better reaction from the Ash Warriors, an elite canine corps that fights alongside the Gray Wardens, and receive some additional reconnaissance info, while the elf wizard may be dismissed out-of-hand by the brusque warriors. By the same token, the elf wizard may connect more closely to characters such as Wynn, a mysterious sorceress in service of the king, who confides more closely in the elf because of the common bond of sorcery.
[...]
Once we hacked through our enemies we advanced on a clearing and met a new potential companion in Morrigan, the new character we’re exclusively revealing on GameSpot. You may recognize her lithe, tattooed, and barely clothed self from some of the earlier Dragon Age promotional art that BioWare has released previously, but we have the first details on who she is. The short version: she’s a sorceress as well as a shape-changer, and yes, you can recruit her to join your party.

Here’s the long version: Morrigan is a "Witch of the Wilds"--a clan of sorceresses who, at one time, terrorized the Korcari Wilds. Her own mother was a witch who has taken the name "Flemeth," which apparently belonged to a legendary and fearsome personage that walked the wilds centuries ago, but Morrigan herself is dismissive of these tales. She’s also not very keen on the race of men, either, and has observed them, and found them lacking, from her distant forest home, yet she also finds them strangely intriguing. With the outbreak of the war, Morrigan’s curiosity finally gets the best of her, and she emerges from her forest home to make her services available to your party.
[...]

[note, this contains a few more plot spoilers than other previews]

[...]

The Origins bit of Dragon Age refers to the first two or three hours of play, during which the choices you make have a real impact on how the world reacts to you. The bulk of our time with the game is centred on showing how this will work in action.

As a Human Noble Warrior we begin in the Ruins of Ostagar. Here the armies of Fereldan have gathered together to make their final stand against the Blight. As a young Grey Order recruit, we’re sworn to protect the people of Fereldan against the Blight, so we’re here to lend a helping hand.

In a cut scene we’re introduced via our mentor Duncan to the young King Cailan, who’s delighted to have us fight by his side. During dialogue we get a nice cinematic view, ala Mass Effect, but without the radial conversation wheel. You’ll instead be picking from lines of dialogue displayed at the bottom of the screen. These lines don’t trigger voice over, like in Mass Effect, either. Your character remains silent throughout all the chatting.

With the pleasantries over we’re left alone with Duncan to chat about the upcoming battle. Every recruit, we’re told, must go through a secret ritual called the Joining in order to become a fully fledged Grey Warden. But there’s no need to rush, we have until nightfall to perform it. Until then, we’re free to explore the camp, but we’re not allowed to leave it.

We approach the local quartermaster. Turns out he doesn’t have a lot of respect for elves. But then most don’t. In the Dragon Age universe elves are often mistreated and are considered second class citizens. We approach a caged prisoner, banged up because he stole a wizard’s key he’s since swallowed to hide from his captors. He desperately wants food and water, he says, and is willing to trade the key (recently crapped out) for some grub. Since we’re role-playing as a warrior though, we decide to kill the unlucky wretch and just take our prize. Unsurprisingly he’s not happy about this and screams bloody murder as he meets his doom. A nearby guard gives us a ticking off. We basically tell him to sod off and mind his own business.

"The moral choices you make within Dragon Age: Origins will actually have ramifications down the road," explains Tudge. "I think a stunt like killing this prisoner just might catch up with us later on."

We have a chat with an Ash Warrior - an elite band of warriors who use devastating war dogs called Mobari Hounds on the battlefield. Turns out he doesn’t like elves either. What a racist lot.

In order to demonstrate how the Dragon Age world perceives you differently depending on your class, Tudge loads up another character from another origin - a Female Elven Mage. Again we talk to the quartermaster, who, seeing that you’re an elf, gives you some grief, demanding his armour and questioning your attire. But, when he discovers that you’re a Grey Warden he pathetically backtracks and apologies profusely.
Advertisement

We speak to the prisoner. This time we decide not to stick our sword in his gut and help him out. The prisoner suggests we ask the guard for the remains of his dinner. Using our high persuade skill we convince him to part with his food and pass it on. He thanks you, but there’s no mention of the wizard’s key we took as a Human Noble Warrior.

"The moral choices you make within Dragon Age not only change the way the story plays out for you but also the items you can or cannot receive," Tudge says. "In this particular case we felt good about helping the prisoner but we never actually got the item that we wanted. So sometimes being nice doesn’t necessarily get you what you want."
It’s the story and how you can shape your own origin which has us most excitedIt’s the story and how you can shape your own origin which has us most excited

We speak to Wynn, a woman who recognises you as a Mage that has passed the Harrowing, a sacred right of passage that all Mages must complete. During the Mage origins story we would have played through the Harrowing ourselves. If we had been talking to Wynn as a Human Noble, however, we would have had an entirely different conversation. And, as you might expect, the Ash Warrior still doesn’t like elves, and, since we’re an elf this time, is particularly rude to us. "He couldn’t see past the ears," says Tudge.

[...]

After a quick scrap with some darkspawn (warriors of the Blight) a mysterious female character called Morrigan, who’s been causing quite a stir on Bioware’s forum as a result of sporadic appearances in artwork, appears. In a sultry voice she wonders who, and what, we are, and our intentions in the forest. Tudge offers little: "While we’re not really talking a lot about Morrigan we can tell you that she’s a very interesting character and will play a very important role in the Dragon Age story."

[...]

In the first room the party gets caught up in speed reducing grease and a darkspawn emissary launches a fireball that lights the grease on fire. Here we see that Dragon Age’s spells can interact with each other - we cast Blizzard and put the fire out, all the while the AI is controlling our party and sending them off to deal with darkspawn warriors. We cast Tempest, an intense electrical storm that drains life and mana. We loot the poor emissary, heal up and buff everyone with Flaming Weapons, which adds fire damage to all our weapons.

[...]

There are finishing moves, called death blows in the game, for every type of attack, including ranged and sword. A critical hit will result in a death blow, so you’ll want to concentrate on increasing the chance to crit with certain characters in your group. Expect them all to be gory - we saw decapitations not only with swords but with shields too.

[...]

[...]

Playing as a brave knight come to join with the Grey Wardens in a bid to fend-off a Tolkienesque ‘Blight’ taking over the land, I’m immediately struck by the quality of the acting, and the lengths to which the developers have obviously gone to help drive the narrative through convincing conversational pieces. Of course, there will be choices to make during these dialogue sequences, and your actions here will play a crucial role in how the plot expands. Tudge tells us that the options available to you during these all important chat sequences will also alter depending upon your character choices, BioWare literally trying to offer each player a unique experience, while also creating huge re-play potential.

Beyond character and story specific choices, ambiguous moral decisions will also have to be faced - will you do the right thing but potentially miss out on something key to your central quest? Or will you do the wrong thing to get what you need, regardless of how other people in the game regard you? One such decision was faced when dealing with a captive prisoner in a town being defended by the Grey Wardens from the Blight. Kill the hapless chap and you might get a useful key, feed him and you’ve made an ally, but at the expense of a useful item. As BioWare point out, this is a simplistic example, but later on in the game the choices will be more complex; the morality cloudy. The first two to three hours will be unique, and based entirely on your character and their actions, we’re reliably informed.

[...]

As you progress through the game, the plot progressing apace, you’ll come across friends and enemies (again, a reflection of your character and choices), building a party with whom you’ll eventually tackle the no doubt vile creatures the game throws at you (we hear talk of some kind of terrible demon, linked to this mythological ‘Blight’). Your alliances will be key in battle, while BioWare have added a pseudo-political dimension via the inclusion of Elves; second-class citizens in the world of Dragon Age. How subtle elements like this are handled will make a big difference to the overall game.

[...]

[...]
The first character we witnessed was a Human Noble Warrior equipped with a sword, shield, and the type of brute force attacks you’d expect from a knight of foot soldier. For example the shield bash technique was used to knock enemies to the ground and a berserker mode was enabled to enhance damage at the expense of stamina.

The Human Noble character was often at the front of the conflict, leading his team of three other warriors into the fray. This was very different when playing the same locations as a female Elvin Mage. These characters focus on ranged magical techniques that both cause damage and enhance the attacks of their teammates. This often requires the combination of magic spells such as greasing an area and then lighting it afire. Or, you could put out the fire with a blizzard spell and drain an enemy’s health and mana with a light show called Tempest. We saw other spells that paralyzed, lit weapons on fire, and shot streams of flames in a single directions.

[...]

Another way the character class played into the game was the interactions that took place in town. While the human noble was treated with respect by most everyone, Elves are second class citizens in the world of Dragon Age. The mage character was taunted and talked to with a tone of resentment on more than one occasion. Only another mage recognized the character’s sizeable talents and paid her respect.

We only had a brief look at the equipment screen where armor and weapons could be dragged directly onto the character.

[...]

[...]
The title looks back as well as forward: Origins refers to the game’s "origin stories" system that will "change the way the world perceives you, and how you perceive the world" - in other words, you’ll define your character and the story by your words, actions and moral choices, choosing to be a "hero, martyr, or tyrant".
[...]
Warriors and mages? Check. Fire and ice schools of magic? Check. Ogre boss? Check. Charging, roaring army of fang-faced orc-a- likes? Check. Trios of conversational options, neatly split between obsequious, wary and rude? Check. Raven-ringed spires? Ponderous council-of-war cut-scenes? "Will you kill the prisoner or set him free?" Check, check, check.
[...]
The game focuses on the war with the Darkspawn, that numberless mutant horde. We’re introduced to the game as a human warrior who belongs to the Grey Wardens, a neutral order of wise men dedicated to the eradication of Darkspawn, which inspires equal amounts of reverence and mistrust in the more politically-minded characters that we meet. It’s not clear if all players will join the Grey Wardens, however; play later switched to a female elven mage, and one cut-scene did show a council of mages opposing the Grey Wardens’ advice.

You’ll choose between three basic archetypes - warrior, wizard and rogue - and presumably specialise within these
[...]
Dragon Age is an entirely single-player game, but you’ll often be leading a party of four. This party is neither entirely pre-ordained nor left to you to select from a pool; events and conversations will often give you the option to add certain non-player characters to your party, like the fresh-faced tower guard seen in the demo.
[...]
Combat happens in real time, with skills selected from a time-honoured action bar and the character manipulated with WASD controls. You’d be tempted to say the game played like an offline World of Warcraft, if it wasn’t for the optional "pause and play" system. Once paused, you can cue up series of commands and switch between members of your party, and this is where we suspect the real meat of Dragon Age’s combat lies.

NPC party-members are controlled by autonomous AI in real-time, but once controlled offer up their own limited action bars, providing some variety and tactical flexibility. Pause also allows you to string together combos neatly, across single or multiple enemies, and BioWare is clearly working to provide skills that play off each other within combos - such as the warrior’s shield bash being used to open up enemy defences for more direct strikes, or the mage casting a slick of oil before setting alight with a fire spell.
[...]

[...]
BioWare reps confirmed that we will run into said dragons at some point
[...]
Our demo began with an introduction to the Gray Wardens, better known as the Good Guys, and their epic struggle against the Blight. The Blight are a the blue and green skinned orc lookalikes that you, your party and the Gray Wardens will battle throughout. They’re of a varied species, some standing ten feet tall with sprouted horns, others more human like
[...]
Dragon Age: Origins has the dialogue tree interface the company is well-known for, with Mass Effect style camera angles paired with more isometric, full party view angles
[...]
The game also has the BioWare patented "pause and play" method of controlling your party members actions with a turn-based/real-time combat engine.
[...]
Wandering around the king’s courtyard, we came across a caged man, one who promised us a key in exchange for feeding him. Instead of opting to find food for the poor caged soul or ignoring him, our "hero" decided to go with another choice — kill the prisoner and take his bartering tool.
[...]
This kicked off a brief mission in which we were instructed to light a tower beacon, gathering up disposable party members along the way. These "red shirts" weren’t important to the story, but, as we saw later, you’ll come across playable teammates that do affect the plot.
[...]
Our BioWare rep switched the action to a separate scene, showing off the skills of a higher level elven mage, one gifted with elemental powers. She casted fire and ice spells
[...]
The ogre, twice the size of the Gray Warden and his party members, was hurling chunks of the floor, picking up the less fortunate and bashing them to death as the four-person hero squad attacked. [...] after whittling down the ogre’s health bar, ended with a sword through the skull cinematic attack.
[...]

[...]
You play a fledgling Grey Warden, a sect of warriors who are sworn to serve King and Country in a war against the Darkspawn. So far, after a few battles, the war has gone well. Unfortunately – that’s all about to change.
[...]
[it] has sweet particle effects, plenty of atmospheric and ambient touches that help immerse you into the universe. There’s an epic feel about the battles as you can see literally hundreds of people (and monsters) on the screen at once in some cases. Decal effects are in, as the blood and gore stays on you, even after you zone into new areas.
[...]
It mixes real-time and turn-based mechanics offering players who want to micro-manage their parties more of an active hand in doing so. You can also jump into any party member at any given time so that’s a plus too. Thankfully, Dragon Age isn’t a button masher, as melee classes get a wide selection of weapon styles and combo attacks that you can slap unto your hot bar.
[...]
Both characters and monsters have special attacks as well as standard combo and style moves. In one fight our group had against an ogre, it was able to pick people up, punch them in the face and then throw them around.
[...]
As far as magic goes, mages serve as healers, buffers and damage dealers. [...] the spell system seemed very open and interactive. You could, for instance, put out fires with ice spells or even light oil ablaze with a fireball. If you have two AI mages in your party they will actually work together to weave cool little combo effects together
[...]
On the bottom they had a 20 button hot-bar
[...]
one of the biggest concerns people have is: does the content scale to your character’s level ala The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion? In Dragon Age’s case, that is going to be no. Monster levels are pre-set so if you don’t follow the storyline odds are you’re going to get your face eaten off by something much tougher than yourself.
[...]

[...]
BioWare invited us to check out an extended demo
[...]
at the start of the game you’ll be assuming the role of a recruit signing up with the gray gardens[sic, should be wardens]--a group of paladin-like warriors tasked with defending humanity from enemies such as the orc-like horde they refer to as the blight
[...]
A starving prisoner being kept in a cage awaiting sentencing pleaded for help as the protagonist approached, and offered to exchange the stolen key that put him in there for food and water. After some interactive conversation, three options presented themselves; help the guy out, ignore him, or kill him and take the key.
[...]
The cinematic camera angles did a great job of showing off the detailed character models, as well as how great the lip-syncing in the game is already.
[...]
Heading toward what was left of the tower, he went from something resembling a traditional Baldur’s Gate camera view to a third-person view more like that used in action and MMO games. The control interface was also reminiscent of those featured in many popular MMOs, since all of the character’s moves appeared to be bound to a row of 20 buttons along the bottom of the screen.

In Dragon Age you won’t just be controlling a single character. Rather, you can lead a party of up to four characters that, at times, will include guys as generic as the "tower guard" who offered to help with the mission alongside characters who can presumably stay with you long-term.
[...]
When the party entered the tower the guy running the demo opted to swap out one of its number for an elven mage with an impressive arsenal of spells at her disposal. The reason for that became obvious when, moments after stepping through the door into the tower the greasy floor was set ablaze by an enemy hurling a fireball at it. The mage was able to extinguish the fire by calling down a swirling blizzard that left a thin layer of snow on the floor. That was impressive, and things only got better when we were shown how Dragon Age, like other BioWare games, gives you the option to pause combat at any time and give instructions to your characters while time stands still.
[...]
the mage showed off a number of other spells that included a lightning-like tempest that engulfed the entire room, a flamethrower attack, a glyph of paralysis that slowed down enemies, and her ability to heal other party members. Oddly, she was also able to cast a "grease" spell that coated an area with the same flammable substance the party had almost been killed by earlier. An unusual spell for sure, but an extremely effective one when used in conjunction with a well-placed fireball.
[...]
The first thing the ogre did was hurl a boulder toward the mage who was keeping her distance, and then it pounded the ground to briefly knock over the rest of the group who had moved in the for the kill. The ogre’s most impressive attack saw it grabbing a member of the party and then punch him repeatedly. We’re told that characters armed with shields will have a chance to free themselves with a "shield bash" move when this happens
[...]

[...]
Zeschuk referred to the game as a "spiritual successor" to Bioware’s lauded Baldur’s Gate series
[...]
Described as a dark fantasy game that will let players form their own personal origin story
[...]
We know the game is coming to the PC first, and Zeschuk said, on consoles "in the future."
[...]

[...]
The over-the-shoulder view you’ll notice in a lot of the screen shots is a little deceptive. When the need for strategic acuity arises, you’ll be zooming the camera out so as to spy the action from a better vantage. BioWare’s trademark "pause ‘n play" mechanic (which has earned a snappy name, apparently) is present, and it works just like you remember. You can queue up commands when you freeze the action, and watch them play out when you resume. The pace playing out on-screen felt familiar, and the nigh-fully-populated MMO-style hotbar dressing the UI would lead you to believe that BioWare’s designers also thought that Mass Effect’s PC version was a big improvement over the original.
[...]
Tudge played a melee-type for about half the demo, and the abilities on display were more or less what you’d expect: shield bashes, multiple-slash flurries, and plain old auto attacks. Things got much more interesting when he switched to a "mage" (his words; he also confirmed during a brief Q&A demo that "There will be ‘classes’ in Dragon Age for sure."). While the spells his mage hurled comprised your typical fantasy fare (fireballs, blizzards and the like), the ways that their effects interacted seemed straight out of BioShock. Example: after spilling a "grease" spell effect on the ground, Tudge’s mage set the puddle ablaze by following up with a fireball. In another instance, an enemy’s grease fire was extinguished by a blizzard. When he unleashed a tempest (think: a low-grade local thunderstorm), it almost looked like he agitated the targeted grease fire. Tudge referred to this as the "spell combo" system, and said that while many effects will be spelled out throughout the course of the game, others will be revealed through experimentation.

The combat portion of the demo culminated in a battle with an ogre, who displayed some moves wholly uncharacteristic of the typical hit point-laden, particle effect-radiating punching bag that constitutes the average drone. He’d rip chunks off the ground and hurl them at party members, pick up those nearby and pummel them with his other fist (hit point totals would notably diminish on the appropriate character portrait with each blow), and perform a brutal booty-ground-pound that would make a lesser Mario wannabe turn green.
[...]
"You’ll notice that we actually chose to use your own voice when telling the story. You’re able to create such a custom character, and really, the party is you -- you are the hero. So we wanted for you to be able to tell that story in your own voice, rather than imposing one upon you." So think KotoR instead of Mass Effect. All the other characters spoke, however, and did so well, reinforcing the chasm that seemingly exists between voicework in BioWare games and those of most other developers. Their facial expressions and body language were emotive and naturalistic, barring a few awkward gestures and the odd glazed-over look, and despite the overwhelming feeling that it’s all pretty generic, the narrative goings-on made one feel that there was definitely some thought put into this world.
[...]

[...]
"Origins" refers to the character development system [...] asically, the choices you make early in the game -- the "origins" -- develop your character in a new way not seen before in a BioWare game, and these decisions affect both how your character can play the game, and how the game plays out for you. The rules set is distinct to Dragon Age, and you’ll have several character classes and traits to customize.
[...]
Though the third-person, over-the-shoulder perspective resembles more recent games like "Mass Effect and enables you to zoom in for a close view of the action, you can also pull the camera back and manage your game from the more traditional, and tactical, top-down view. It’s from this perspective, with the highlighted circles under your party members, that the game begins to look remarkably like a modern-day Baldur’s Gate
[...]
Managing your party uses the classic BioWare pausable combat, where you stop action to queue up attacks. The party AI also allows for you to have multiple battles at once. We saw two party members in one room fighting off a beast while two others carried out another fight elsewhere. Parties will have a maximum of four players -- two fewer than the six possible in "Baldur’s Gate II" , which Zeschuk says is a compromise that enables them to achieve maximum "graphic fidelity" while also giving players enough "chess pieces" to move around the board. It’s not, however, a result of the game design being dumbed down -- an understandable fear held by many PC enthusiasts, given BioWare’s recent focus on console games. "It’s a balance point," says Zeschuk. "You don’t want to get overly detailed. In playtesting, we found that four was a nice number. You can mix it up with different characters but it’s still easy enough to control, [yet] still detailed enough that people felt what they were doing was meaningful." Zeschuk also points out that by streamlining the number of characters players control, the team was able to focus on making other aspects of the game more epic: bigger enemies -- a room-filling ogre was shown during the demo -- as well as larger battles with dozens of combatants
[...]
The dialogue system also hearkens back to games of yore. In stark contrast to Mass Effect’s highly interactive and well-acted dialogue, here your character is mute. Other characters speak, and you select your responses from a classic tree, but you never hear your character’s voice. "It’s an interesting issue," says Zeschuk, when asked about the seeming backward step away from Mass Effect’s more immersive and cinematic dialogue experience. "We’re very dynamic with the dialogue choices and who you are, and there’s a lot of variety in who you can be in the game," he says. With all these choices, managing the various dialogue possibilities for the main character turned out to be overwhelming, and likely impossible to fully voice. It wasn’t a decision taken lightly. "We went through a whole process involving a ton of people in the studio, and thought a lot about it, and at the end of the day [leaving out the voice acting for your character] fit the type of the game we were making. This is that classic, return-to-the-roots flavor."
[...]
Graphically, the game looks incredibly detailed, right down to the blood that appears on your party members’ armor after a fierce battle.
[...]
We saw a mage drop a grease spell across the floor of a room, which then was lit up by the group’s flaming weapons, causing a stunning conflagration that engulfed the enemies. In another spot, one party member paralyzed the baddies while his cohorts picked them off one by one. It’s these tactical opportunities and multitudes of different combat possibilities that gave classic RPGs such depth and replayability, and Dragon Age looks to be a truly worthy of the tradition.
[...]
"But we really do cater very carefully to the platform we build [it] for. We’re thinking about it, and something’s probably going to happen, but quite clearly, [dragon age] is a PC game."

[...]
Dragon Age can be played two ways. For most of the demonstration, it had a Mass Effect or Knights of the Old Republic style of camera, where you watch from third-person as your character runs around the level. Conversations happen in Mass Effect style, with cinematic angles and cuts. However, the game features what is called a pause-and-play feature for combat, which lets you pause the game at any time and give orders to your squad. You can also pull the camera back to top-down point of view similar to that of Baldur’s Gate. Zeschuk told us that you could play the game entirely from that angle, as well.

The game is set in a world where an elite society of warriors known as the Grey Wardens battle the Blight, an evil infestation that appears to be the side-effect of the presence of an arch demon. The level that was demonstrated had the player character accompany Duncan, a mentor and friend, to help him and his army battle the Blight. Duncan is young and eager for battle and glory [editors note: the writer has character names mixed up]. The conversation system looked similar to other BioWare games in that you have multiple options, so you can basically respond in friendly, neutral, or rude manner. BioWare showed off some of the possible actions that can change the story. For instance, in one town there’s a prisoner in a cage. He explains he has a key to a magical chest that he will give you if you get him food. You can do so and he’ll give you the key, or you can just knife him and take it from his body. Your decision will have consequences later.

BioWare also wanted to show off the combat system and the scalable battles. The recent trailer that has an army of monsters rushing toward a human army is basically taken from the game, and it’s an in-engine cutscene. However, your goal is to not participate in that battle but to light a bonfire atop a tower to summon reinforcements. However, the gunlocks (the gremlin-like enemies) have taken the tower, so you must battle your way to the top.

At the base of the tower is a guard who warns you about the situation and you can recruit him to come along to help or have stay behind. You might use him as cannon fodder, and he’s not a story NPC. The tower itself is swarming with enemies, and the demo runner had a four-man party with a female elf magic user for some extra firepower. (By the way, character creation will let you create a male or female character with the wide range of customization options.)

The combat system looks like a close-up Baldur’s Gate style of combat, as you can pause the game at any time, give orders, and then unpause the game and watch the action unfold. What’s important is using tactics. In this case, a shield bash to stun an opponent and then toggling assault, which orders up four rapid sword strikes. Magic effects the environment, so the heroes rushed into a trap with the floor covered in grease and the enemy lit it with fire. The elf magic user used a blizzard spell to extinguish the blaze. It’s important to use teamwork and coordinate attacks, so you’ll use pause-and-play quite a bit, just like in Baldur’s Gate.

The end of the demo had the heroes storming the top of the tower, where a huge ogre awaited. This guy has special attacks of his own, like grabbing stone blocks and hurling them, charging them, grabbing them, and more. He’s a tough foe, so you need to use different tactics and spells. But if you can kill him, you can finish him off with a cinematic kill move that involves leaping atop his falling body and jamming your two-handed sword into his skull.

[...]

Meanwhile, Zeschuk said that BioWare was developing the game on the PC, playing the game on the PC, and designing the game for the PC, though the company does plan on delivering Dragon Age to consoles sometime the road.

[...]
this game represents a return to BioWare’s Baldur’s Gate roots. The name also represents the heightened role that your individual character’s origin is going to play in the way he or she sees the world and how the world responds to them. Though Dragon Age is a new IP and a PC exclusive, Greg revealed that he hopes it becomes a running franchise and even finds its way to the consoles.
[...]