SDCC 10: EA Gives Fans a Taste of Dragon Age II
EA and BioWare setup a little area in the Hilton near San Diego Comic-Con that allowed fans and guests to test out Dragon Age II, the sequel to the first Dragon Age: Origins, before the media. When entering the hotel, we were first greeted by a Dragon statue. Since it was a private demonstration, no pictures or videos were allowed inside, or else the big buff guys will come and take us away to their private chambers. Sign me up!
The demo starts off with our main character, Hawk, who has already teamed up with a female mage. Already you can see the improved dialogue system, which borrows heavily from Mass Effect, using a dial to choose how you want to respond to certain events and characters. Again, you can be nice, bad, or cocky. Your character now can talk, giving players better immersion compared to the silent player of the first game, Origins. The story will also be told in narratives, going back and forth from the present time to the time the story is being told.
The controls feels more action oriented, leaning more towards action games like Devil May Cry and Fable. You attacks are limited to time, meaning that each time you use a certain attack, it will need to replenish before you can use it again. Each attack is unique, so that means some attacks will take longer to replenish. Think being able to command while being a Spartan from 300 at the same time.
After looking at the graphics, I can say that it’s a big improvement over the generic look of the first game. The character models are more stylized, and in turn makes the characters look more unique. The closeup of the skeleton baddies was pretty impressive. And the finale of the demo ended with an awesome showcase of flames and dragon power.
As your character is confronted by more skeletons, you’re saved by a fire-breathing dragon. As the dragon head towards you, it starts to transform into a female human form. The screen then fades to black, leading us into a cutscene between a chubby guy with a big nose and a lady arguing about the validity of the story he just told.
It looks as if BioWare have really listened to the fans and worked on making the game a better experience by improving controls, graphics, story, dialogue and more. Dragon Age 2 is coming out in 2011, and look out for the trailer on August 17, 2010.
