Dragon Age: Origins Preview

The guys at Gamer’s Intuition were in attendance at this year’s GenCon Indy, and have brought back a hands-on preview of Dragon Age: Origins.

Each conversation comes with dialogue options (an expected gameplay element from the Bioware camp). In this case, you can either demand that your mother not lose her will and strength, or be more sympathetic and concerned for her well-being. While a large chunk of these conversations and even individual dialogue options may have a greater effect on the storyline and how your character develops, depending on the character you’re interacting with, these options may not have an effect on the outcome of the scenario at all.

For instance, early on in the demo, my party of three came across one of my man-servants, who frantically reported on the fallen state of the castle and wished to flee for his life. Again, I was met with a choice. Either encourage the man-servant to escape, or demand that he stay behind, be a man, and help protect myself, my mother and my dog. While the character is highly inconsequential (in fact, it matters not if he dies in subsequent battles, that is, if you demand he stay and fight), his presence may be beneficial later on from a tactical standpoint, when four fighting players are better than three, but his staying behind or fleeing has no effect on the plot whatsoever.

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However, one area of concern did arise almost instantly, that being the tendency for battles to become a bit repetitive, and even hack-n-slash, button mash affairs. While your character comes equipped with a number of upgradable and customizable magic and otherwise ranged attacks (available through an upgrade tree in the menu – upgrade points are awarded upon your leveling up), the few battles I fought in the demo were much easier completed by simply targeting an enemy and bashing on the A button until their body slumped to the floor. Whether or not this issue will remain in the final version of the game remains to be seen.

That final paragraph obviously only applies to a specific subset of players – and the “bashing on the A button” comment really sums up which group that might be.

On the PC, combat never became monotonous – I was constantly pausing and setting up my characters’ talents (backstabs, dual wield sweeps, multi-strikes, shield charges, a variety of spells, etc.). You can also use different poisons on your weapons, assemble traps in strategic spots, and make use of quite a few different – and very important – stunning attacks. I really don’t know what this guy was expecting.