Dragon Age II Preview

Kotaku saw and played Dragon Age II on the Xbox 360, and dedicates its preview to explaining why fans of Dragon Age: Origins shouldn’t be worried, this game is for them too.

There are some changes PC fans should know, about how their version will differ. First, and this is sort of a non-difference, but the PC game won’t be made separately. All versions of the game are being made by BioWare’s internal teams. The bigger change, however, is that the game will no longer support an overhead tactical view. This was an art and combat-design decision, the BioWare rep told me. Support for that Baldur’s Gate-style view forced the artists to design rooms and scenes that didn’t have important things on their ceilings and skies which top-down players wouldn’t see. It also forced the designers into an awkward spot where they had to accommodate top-down turn-taking players and behind-the-back action-first players which, catering to the more reckless of those playing styles, forced the game’s difficulty to be low. Making all player play from some sort of from-the-rear camera view alleviates that. But! PC gamers, your version will include a special option to zoom the camera back, just not up. Console gamers won’t get that.

The PC version will also handle combat commands a little differently, letting player click to issue a continued attack command, instead of forcing them to button-mash (or mouse-click like maniacs, as it were). Leave that to the console gamers.

What to make of all this? Dragon Age II’s lack of depth may have been exaggerated. I’d seen concerns that BioWare was abandoning its roots by making DAII more of a Mass Effect kind of game. I don’t see that happening as egregiously here as I think some had feared. This series has been altered for a wider audience, but dumbed down? Sold out? I don’t see that. There are classic PC RPG roots here. They’re just a little more buried than before.