We don’t know much about Bioware’s next RPG, reportedly in development for five years now. But we probably think we know a lot about it as, well, their last three games were a liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitle bit similar.
Reassuringly, it’s the Edmonton lot closing the circle. They’ve already shed their Star Wars handcuffs by following up KOTOR with Mass Effect, set in their own Roddenberryesque sci-fi universe, and Dragon Age will see ‘em finally step out of Dungeons & Dragons’ shadow and into their own medieval fantasy world. And about time too – a developer with that much clout shouldn’t have to suckle from another man’s elf.
So will it be KOTOR with dwarves, or Baldur’s Gate IIIish? Bioware say the latter, even claiming this is very much Doing It For The Fans – which would be quite the contrast from the canny populism of KOTOR and Mass Effect.
On Wednesday we’ll hopefully get our first clear look at what manner of beast Dragon Age really is, according to Ye Olde Cryptic Website Teaser. If all the talk of dark, gritty storytelling and lasting effects on the world based on player choices rings true, it strikes me this could be 2009’s perfect companion/antidote to Diablo III’s merry meatheadedness.
So long as they’ve not used the Mass Effect combat system, anyway. [Shudder].
Edit – some interesting details on the game, carefully scavenged from dev posts over the months, are collected here. Thanks, MasterBoo!
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Ah, the big news was:
* The game now has a subtitle (Origins)
* The logo has been updated to reflect this
* They will reveal more news later.
It’s interesting to see how Chris Priestly (Bioware PR guy) over at the bioware forums is surprised that the fans was unimpressed by this news.
I certainly agree it was a shame that non-jedi characters were comparatively weak, but to be fair that’s consistent with the Star Wars universe where the jedi really are superior fighters. It would have been cool if there was more incentive to bring different characters to different worlds. Still, I used HK47 pretty much all the time from getting him and while a jedi would have been a better party member for combat, I didn’t feel like I suffered from it.
About the character customization, I felt there was a fairly wide range in the choice between focusing on force powers or lightsaber combat as well as the dialogue choices and the resulting dark/light side shift which affected which force powers you could use effectively. Also, there was a clear choice between being heavily melee or caster oriented in that the heavier suits of armor restricted the use of a lot of force powers. It worked for me, but I understand if it might not have for everyone.
I personally trust Bioware to give me a game I’ll have fun playing. I can’t say any of them fall into my favourites category, but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed each one. Even Jade Empire, which I was pretty disappointed with for numerous reasons, felt like it was worth the purchase and playthrough, so I’m positive about this so far.
@ Lord_Mordja: Indeed. The announced announcement has turned out to be an announcement of what is most likely an announcement teaser (I think a Blizzard-style gameplay footage splurge might be too much to hope for).