Dragon Age 2 - New Art Style and Interactive Map @ Game Informer

Senior Artist Matt Goldman comments on the new art style in Game Informer and how spell effects won't carry over to cutscenes. He also talks about cinematic inspiration, what the new narrative means to artists and more.

On the updated look for Dragon Age II:
Before, I think Origins was kind of like Death Dealer meets The Hobbit. It was half really “raah, scary” and half really whimsical. We wanted to take it into more of a desolate feel and kind of strip it down to a hot-rod Samurai look. Not only visually, but in terms of the actual storytelling motifs that appear in those movies. The cautionary tale was really appropriate for DA2.

On spell effects carrying over to cutscenes:
I personally argued against that a lot. There are various game reasons why [we did that]. It would be cumbersome to cast all of those spells again. But I think it really takes you out of the moment when you’re standing there, talking to a guy and he’s wrapped in glowing red plastic and there are flames shooting out of him and rocks falling on top of him. I absolutely agree that that needs to not happen.

The interactive map for Thedas,which has 10 must see locations on it, can be found here.