Dragon Age II Previews

This week’s GamesCom has given birth to a couple of new previews for BioWare’s Dragon Age sequel, including a two-pager from the editors at IGN:

After making my way through part of the Blightlands, Hawke’s family ran into an injured Templar, Wesley and his body builder of a wife, Aveline. Although Wesley is initially aggressive toward Bethany for being an apostate, the dire situation forces the two groups to work together. Shortly after this encounter I leveled up and was able to see if that aspect of the game had changed.

For the most part, leveling up is similar to the first game. You’ll receive points to allocate to attributes like Strength, Dexterity, Magic, Cunning, Willpower and Constitution, as well as choosing a new ability. The ability tree is what the team focused on re-constructing and it looks promising. Instead of linear progression, different types of abilities are grouped together in a tree. For example all abilities that involve using a two-handed weapon are bundled together and abilities that require a one-handed weapon and a shield are grouped. Abilities can also be built out further than before, as most active abilities can be upgraded at least once.

And another article of similar length from RPG Site:

There are definitely some controversial systems in play here, and many have already been claiming that the combat constitutes being dumbed down for the console audience, with the zoomed-out Baldur’s Gate-style view gone entirely in favour of third person action more closely associated with Mass Effect, but one thing that can’t be denied is how cool the combat looks in motion and how sincerely the Bioware team seem to believe that these changes are for the best.

They want to make Dragon Age more accessible, but in order to do that some features must be sacrificed. Throughout our time with the game we were told that none of the depth has been lost through this process, though, and the combat will be just as rewarding for RPG veterans as it is for newbies.

Another area that’s taken cues from Mass Effect is the dialogue. Gone are the listed lines in response, replaced with that now oh-so-familiar decision wheel that gives you a choice between an overall .ist’ of a response rather than a full sentence. Similarly inspired is the fact that the main character male or female has a default surname everyone will refer to him by, and now the lead character is fully voiced, rather than mute with text responses to dialogue.