Dragon Age II Preview

There’s a new two-page hands-on preview of Dragon Age II available over at Bit-tech, though I can’t say the text is making me feel any better about the direction BioWare is taking with the sequel.

The fact that Hawke has a voice has necessitated changes to the dialogue system too. No longer does Dragon Age offer the old adventure game style of dialogue choices where you can see all response options exactly. Instead, Dragon Age 2 uses a dialogue wheel that offers a taste of what your character will say, complete with an indication of their tone.

Again, it’s a change which moves Dragon Age 2 closer to Mass Effect a comparison you’d better get used to, because it’s going to get used a lot.

Hawke’s pre-established character brings other limitations to Dragon Age 2 as well, such as a simplified character creation system. Hawke can be a man or a woman, but his classes are limited to only the generic ‘˜Warrior’, ‘˜Wizard’ or ‘˜Rogue’ and there’s no option to change his race; he has to be human.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with those limitations obviously but if you loved the first game for its old-school PC RPG feel or are desperate to play as a dwarven taxidermist then you might be a little dismayed.