Backhand of Justice

Why do I want Dragon Age: Origins? To answer that you have to look past Marilyn Manson songs, repeated sound bites about ‘dark heroic fantasy’ and virtual sex scenes.

You have to look way back to 1998, when Baldur’s Gate was released and my obsession with CRPGs was born. That obsession has been on temporary hiatus, but hopefully Dragon Age can rekindle the flame.

Character, not story

Bioware puts significant emphasis on story in Dragon Age, and how the story is vicious and unrelenting, much like the work of George R. R. Martin off which such ‘low fantasy’ is based. I have to be honest: I don’t care about story.

Baldur’s Gate didn’t have a good story. It was cliché and tired even a decade ago. Powerful demigod tries to take over through political subterfuge? It’s been done. What Baldur’s Gate had was fully fleshed out characters. You might notice that this blog is named after a quote by Minsc, one of your Baldur’s Gate compatriots, but it’s not just Minsc who was memorable. Every character had their own personality and it shone through in everything they did.

Sometimes, when I’m off my medication, I still think about Xan’s moonblade or visiting Thalantyr in High Hedge and cleaning out his acid arrows.

Dragon Age promises six separate back stories to flesh out your character and the NPCs that accompany them, and it is likely that despite all these stories being cliché fantasy archetypes, the dialogue and charisma of the characters will be compelling. I, for one, am excited to meet some new companions and go on a new adventure, as it has been far too long since my last one.

Talk about a fresh story idea! We’re the undead army, and … yep, this says we’re attacking again

Who likes to travel?

Baldur’s Gate was great in that it allowed you to go anywhere. You could explore the world at your leisure, and there were a great number of locales that were not important to the main quest but nonetheless possessed memorable encounters. I still remember hoarding stone to flesh potions in preparation for my encounter with greater basilisks, something that was both fun and completely unnecessary.

While Baldur’s Gate 2 ventured off track a little further into the linear exploration realm, I’m optimistic that the wide open world of Dragon Age will be mine to explore as I will. Hopefully the sidequests are varied and it feels like there is a world outside my quest. Easter egg type encounters like those with Kangaxx the lich are the order of the day for creating a living backdrop.

You can see from this living world featurette below that the locales are lush and varied, and Bioware has made significant effort to make each one both vibrant and internally consistent. Dragon Age finally has the potential to realize the dream of 3D exploration that was never possible in Neverwinter Nights due to technical limitations.

 Combat

One aspect in which Dragon Age can far surpass Baldur’s Gate is in the combat, as the latter game had significant flaws. Not only were mages almost wholly useless when compared with a top level warrior, but the reliance on resting until healed and save/reload trap exploration was tiresome. In addition, while micromanaging characters is fun for boss encounters, for regular trash it is frustrating and fiddly.

Fortunately, Dragon Age appears to have corrected many of these flaws by implementing a hybrid Baldur’s Gate / World of Warcraft combat system with auto-attack plus special abilities on cool-down. In addition, you can automate many NPC actions through extensive battle scripts, and hopefully the combat is visually fluid and interesting.

Spells seem to have been ratcheted up in power with combinations: you can freeze enemies and then shatter them with stone fists, or ignite your grease spell with a fireball. These add both depth and challenge to combat and hopefully there are encounters more varied than ‘fully buff up, click enemy, pray to random number generator gods.’

Check out some of the combat below to see what I mean.

The new shit

Many games have promised compelling moral choice and then failed to deliver, but Bioware has built themselves something of a reputation for depth of character interaction.

While I’m not going to defend some of their more cliché ‘black or white’ choices, Knights of the Old Republic was one of the first games to truly have branching storylines depending on whether you chose the good or evil path.

We have already seen some evidence that points to sophistication beyond the average RPG from Penny Arcade’s commentary on the devotion of the Templars, which is single-minded well beyond what might be considered rational. I expect many choices where the consequences of your actions aren’t apparent for quite some time.

If you enjoyed Baldur’s Gate and this doesn’t get you excited, you must be dead inside

Phat Lewtz

In the end, why do we play these games? For the characters, and for the loot. There’s nothing better than finally outfitting your avatar with a sword called ‘The Face Hammerer’ and then testing it out on an enemy. If I know Bioware (and I do) then that sword is going to hammer faces, and hammer them hard.

World of Warcraft (and to an extent, all RPGs) is so successful because it is extremely satisfying to build up a character from their Origin (see what I did there) and experience that growth first hand. For those of us who no longer have time for an MMORPG at the highest levels, Dragon Age could be just what the doctor ordered.

Dragon Age: Rated AO for Awkward Occurrences

I don’t expect Dragon Age to be a perfect game. In fact, I expect many flaws and more than a few awkward virtual sex moments. If half the elements from Baldur’s Gate are in there, however, and if Bioware has learned from a few of its design mistakes over the past decade, then this game has real potential.

We’re only a few weeks away now and I just want to know if you’re all as motherfucking ready for the new shit as I am.

Update: Giant Bomb quick look provides some insight into just how good this game is going to be. The answer? On a scale of 1 to 10, this game is going to be awesome.