Dragon Age II Preview

Ten Ton Hammer brings us their own two-page preview of Dragon Age II, and once again it’s based on firsthand time with the game at BioWare’s Edmonton headquarters. Commentary from executive producer Mark Darrah is littered throughout:

“We’ve introduced more specific tactical leader creatures to fight in Dragon Age II,” Darrah told me. “For example, you may enter combat with several troopers and a commander who will buff the troopers. It’s very visceral, as you can engage with the troopers and it’s very quick and reactive, but ultimately the commander is the buffing character, so you have to decide on a more macroscopic level if you want to take him out first. That level of tactics on the battle as a whole is what keeps the difficulty there.”

Combat wasn’t the only thing that was familiar. Character creation was a snap, with enough customizability to make your character unique, from skin complexion and tone to tattoos and colors. Inventory management was simple and comprehensible–almost a direct import from Dragon Age: Origins. Character attributes were traditional and easy to manage. The ability trees, however, were a somewhat different beast.

When it comes to abilities, picture a World of Warcraft talent tree. Now instead of just 3 trees per class, picture a whole mess of them. My warrior had six trees available, and each tree was designed to take the warrior into a different role. Some were defensive, some were offensive, some were support roles with crowd control abilities. As long as I met the level and previous ability requirements, I could apply points into any of these trees, and mix and match as I saw fit. The trees weren’t particularly large, each only consisting of five to ten abilities or traits each, but with so many trees available the customization was almost limitless.