Dragon Age 2 - GamesCom Roundup

[Dhruin]

Understandably, there's quite a bit of interest in Dragon Age 2 at GamesCom. Let's start with a bullet-point preview at GamePro:

The jump in graphical fidelity between Dragon Age: Origins and its sequel is pretty stunning. Whereas the first game was overshadowed by the visuals in Mass Effect 2 – Bioware's other major RPG that released a few months later –- Dragon Age 2 stands amongst the company's best work. Along with the more detailed characters, Bioware has infused the game with what Silverman calls “an ownable style.” The menus and characters are a bit less 'generic middle ages' than Origins, exuding a grittier look.

IGN has an enthusiastic article and manage to mention the PC version briefly:

In terms of the PC version, BioWare's leaving a lot of the user-interface the same, though they have added a quick command for stamina and health potions on the right side of the action bar. You can still pause the action with the space bar and issue commands to your team, but you should expect to see some changes to how you view fights. Although what we saw wasn't final, it looks like Bioware is developing a new camera for the PC version that's focused less on getting a bird's eye view and more on zooming in around the battlefield and enemy locations. It looks great so far, but expect to hear more about closer to the game's launch.

An "Interrogation Room" back-and-forth between two editors can be found at GameSpy:

Will Tuttle: See, while I think it's pretty obvious that the PC version was the real version of Origins, I don't feel like that's the case here. It's pretty clear that the development team wanted to emphasize the differences between the two versions a lot more this time out, so the console version feels like a completely different animal altogether. It really feels a lot more like a hack-and-slash action-RPG this time out, a fundamental shift that I'm all for -- especially since it means I'll be much more likely to play the game to completion. Dragon Age 2 looks like the game I wanted Dragon Age: Origins to be, and I have a feeling that it'll help to bring a lot of new fans to the table. I'm definitely looking forward to see what hardcore Dragon Age fans think about the changes, though, as I'm sure this game will have a few outspoken opponents.

An updated hands-on from GameSpot explains the narrative concept:

In short, what we saw at Comic-Con was an example of Varick exaggerating your heroic adventures. That combat-focused demo showed a fast-paced battle with Hawke going up against waves of Darkspawn and essentially making mincemeat of them. Playing as the human warrior class, we had numerous spells and abilities at our disposal and managed to tear through those enemies very quickly. We could practically hear the Darkspawn saying “Thank you sir, may I have another?” after a sword slash.
But fast-forward to the end of the demo, and you see Cassandra confront Varick, asking him if that’s how things really went. Varick flashes a coy smile and then offers to tell her the version of the story that--one would hope--more closely resembles the truth. You’re then sent back in time and forced to do that same battle over again, and the result is something that feels more akin to the combat in Dragon Age: Origins--albeit with a few noticeable differences.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun has a two-paragraph mention in the middle of a roundup of all the games they saw. It's interesting because it's the only article I've seen to take a different view of the new combat:

I was disappointed. Turns out it plays more like Fable, with that anime-style animation where your weapons is raised high above your shoulder in one frame, and then in the next it’s at the end of the blow, with a glowing light indicating where it passed through. More than that, 3rd person melee combat with no block or dodge button feels deeply wrong to me. As a warrior, you run up to enemies and hammer the attack button, popping off special abilities as and when they’re ready. I guess you could play an archer, or a mage. But still. Air through teeth.

More information.

 

[Riddam]

Lovely to see Bioware fucking Dragon age up, seems they didn't do enough damage with Mass 2

 

[Alrik Fassbauer]

Well, the combat of that warrior basically looked like this : He has this blade-staff mixture thing, and he slashes at the opponents … - There is one big strike for example, it's called a "Whirlwind", where he basically dismembers torsos from legs. From ALL opponents what stand around him !

There are a few more attacking buttons you could press - either in real-time or in paused mode (executing it after the pause has gone).

One was a strike that pushed the opponent a bit away from someone.

Plus a few other buttons which I didn't quite understand … "Heroic effort" ? I didn't really see any difference … But maybe that wasn't implemented yet ?

Oh, and I remember a thing from the trailer … The protagonist at one point behaves like some kind of … human dragon ? Stolen from Larian Studios ?

Here is the trailer, by the way (to be seen after an advertisement) : http://video.golem.de/games/3599/dragon-age-2-trailer-von-der-gamescom-2010.html This is the one they were showeing.

And all of the staff of the booth had this strange reddish stripe on the face …

 

[DPB]

It's worth noting that the combat that they showed in the demo is deliberately exaggerated, like described in the Gamespot hands-on. That's just the introduction area, for most part it's going to be much less over the top than that, as explained by the Lead Designer here.

 

[Alrik Fassbauer]

I'd just like to point out to the very end of that trailer : One of the protagonist's hands looks like a scaled hand - something like I'd imagine a dragon's hand on a human. Full of fire.

This is the main reason why I believe they stole that "Ego Draconis" thing from Larian Studios.

 

[kalniel]

Lovely to see Bioware fucking Dragon age up, seems they didn't do enough damage with Mass 2

Welcome to RPGWatch

It seems the 'damage' results in very high sales numbers, so most people will be hoping that they continue to 'damage' their games in such a manner.

 

[Davion]

Welcome to RPGWatch

It seems the 'damage' results in very high sales numbers, so most people will be hoping that they continue to 'damage' their games in such a manner.

I'd like to see Mass Effect 3's sales

Also, Mass Effect 2 sold faster than Mass Effect 1 but not more. I've read that Mass Effect 2 stands at 1.6 million copies sold while Mass Effect 1 is at 1.7 million. Mass Effect 2 has shipped more copies though.

 

[JemyM]

It went from a tactical RPG into another 3rd-person action RPG?
Because yet another 3rd person action RPG is what the market seem to want?

 

[Alrik Fassbauer]

Because yet another 3rd person action RPG is what the market seem to want?

IMHO exactly the point.

The companies clearly head sfor the mass market which consists of players who just love that.

The rest gets … fed up. There is just too much for that for a certain target group which just isn't looked at by the companies.

And the gap increases even further.

 

[JemyM]

Which is why games like Divinity II, Gothic 3, Drakensang and every other action rpg got blasted by reviewsites, where as the tactical Dragon Age got superb reviews...

 

[bkrueger]

Welcome to RPGWatch

It seems the 'damage' results in very high sales numbers, so most people will be hoping that they continue to 'damage' their games in such a manner.

I don't believe that the majority of RPGWatch members want Bioware to move their games in the direction of Mass Effect 2 (or beyond). Sales is not a measure for quality.

 

[Alrik Fassbauer]

Drakensang and every other action rpg

I wouldn't call Drakensang an "action" RPG. There's some tactics involved, but more of that in Drakensang 2. Much more, imho, although this is still my personal opinion.

Interesting in that respect that a "tactical" game like Dragon Age was released, meanwhile no U.S. publisher seems to want to publish Drakensang 2 in the U.S. territories.

But on the other hand EA could release anything at all …

 

[kalniel]

I don't believe that the majority of RPGWatch members want Bioware to move their games in the direction of Mass Effect 2 (or beyond). Sales is not a measure for quality.

Yep sorry, by most people I meant most game buying people, not simply this community. The post I quoted didn't specify what would be damaged.

Yet if more people think a game is worth buying then there has to be some representation of increased overall value of the game, in terms of entertainment/cost. To otherwise say that a minority view is worth more than a majority view might be to entertain snobbery.

 

[bkrueger]

Yet if more people think a game is worth buying then there has to be some representation of increased overall value of the game, in terms of entertainment/cost. To otherwise say that a minority view is worth more than a majority view might be to entertain snobbery.

So you mean McDonald's sells the best food and the Yellow Press produces the best newspapers? Quality is no majority decision.

 

[JDR13]

So you mean McDonald's sells the best food and the Yellow Press produces the best newspapers? Quality is no majority decision.

McDonald's doesn't cost $50-$60 a purchase. Word of mouth has a little more impact when you're spending that kind of money, and people certainly put more thought into it.

 

[idiocracy]

It went from a tactical RPG into another 3rd-person action RPG?
Because yet another 3rd person action RPG is what the market seem to want?

Dragon Age was as tactical as any other MMO out there.

(which means it fails miserably at granting any tactical depth to a player)

I can totally see logic here: Bio failed once again (see BG I/II/NWN) at making an RPG, so they went in the most simple way they can - make yet another Cinematic JRPG.

 

[JDR13]

I can totally see logic here: Bio failed once again (see BG I/II/NWN) at making an RPG, so they went in the most simple way they can - make yet another Cinematic JRPG.

Really? BG I & II were failed attempts at making RPGs?

I'm curious what you would consider successful.

 

[idiocracy]

Really? BG I & II were failed attempts at making RPGs?

They were decent dungeon crawlers with pretty graphics and good art direction (I really liked music). Also, with Real-Time combat, which ruined the game for me since there was TOO freaking much of it!

I'm curious what you would consider successful.

None of Bioware-made, that's for sure.

(No, I'm not trolling, my opinion just differs from majority's)

 

[JDR13]

Well, many of us would probably agree that Bioware hasn't made anything *really* good since 2000-2001, although I didn't think DA was exactly "bad".

Still, it's interesting that you would call the BG games "dungeon crawlers" when in fact they were so much more. But to each his own.

 

[Anderson]

It went from a tactical RPG into another 3rd-person action RPG?

I don't think so, at least not judging by the material posted above. They mentioned that the console version will be more action RPG, but 95% of RPGWatchers play on PC. Aside from the camera change, I haven't seen anything to indicate that the PC version will become a hack & slash action RPG.