Preview: Dragon Age 2

Description

Experience the epic sequel to the 2009 Game of the Year from the critically acclaimed makers of Dragon Age: Origins and Mass Effect 2. You are one of the few who escaped the destruction of your home. Now, forced to fight for survival in an ever-changing world, you must gather the deadliest of allies, amass fame and fortune, and seal your place in history. This is the story of how the world changed forever. The legend of your Rise to Power begins now.

BioWare surprised fans at Comic-Con with a world premiere hands-on preview of Dragon Age 2, completely open to the public. A block down the street from the convention center, fans were treated to a short presentation by lead designer Mike Laidlaw, as well as a few very brief combat segments and a look at the story that kicks off the game.

I'll get impressions out of the way first: It's faster and more brutal, less cerebral and more exaggerated. You might think that's because BioWare wants to make the game a little flashier and more accessible, and you'd be right in part. But Dragon Age 2's dark secret is that even if the action is a little more over-the-top and a lot darker, there's a real, solid, story-based justification for it.

Dragon Age 2 (concept art)

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As you know if you've been paying attention to the game, the sequel's story revolves around a character named Hawke, not the customized, silent Gray Warden protagonist of the first game. While you're still able to customize your appearance and your class, Dragon Age 2 consists of Hawke's story, not just one you're making up.

And here's the catch: Someone else is actually making it up. The main characters of Dragon Age 2 are actually Cassandra and Verik, two people ten years down the line from the first game, that have to save a world on the brink of war not by fighting their own battles, but by finding out just what Hawke's been up to since Dragon Age: Origins. In other words, the game is told in flashback, by a not-always reliable third party. Which means that if Hawke's story is flashier, grittier, or more fanciful than the first game, that's okay -- anything that might be a lie probably is. "We wanted to see what happened if a legend is exaggerated," said Laidlaw during the demonstration.

"We wanted to see what happened if a legend is exaggerated."- lead designer Mike Laidlaw

That doesn't mean that Dragon Age has lost its core RPG combat mechanic -- you can still pause the game and assign orders to your characters. But it does mean that Hawke can mow down baddies with just one whirlwhind ability, or that his mage cohort can summon a magic meteor storm with just the press of a button. Moves are gory and flashy, with limbs and blood flying everywhere after a big slash or a devastating spell.

It means that the pressure to tell a story moves from the dialogue tree to the narrative itself -- while there are still choices to be made, dialogue works much more like Mass Effect's dialogue wheel, and BioWare has even put icons in to match up with each dialogue choice. If you consider choosing a line that is more diplomatic, you'll see an olive branch icon before you choose it. But going with a line that will lead to a big fight will have a clenched fist icon instead.

And it means that after just a few minutes into the game, you can see a dragon swoop out of the sky, magically transform into a woman, and "she" can walk up to Hawke and company to slyly say, "Well, what have we here?" No, that might not be exactly how it happened, but the story you're playing is the story being told, not the story occurring in Ferelden.

Not much was revealed about the characters fighting with Hawke. He (or she) starts out with a human mage sidekick, and while there are some new tricks (mages can now get the "finishing move" cutscenes that are sometimes possible when downing a larger boss, and one dialog option allows you to send your companion in first, allowing them to direct the battle for once), characters control about the same. They do feel faster -- BioWare has decided to lose the "move queue" idea in favor of more responsive controls, so when you press a button, it feels like you're actually swinging a sword instead of just telling a character to swing the sword as soon as they can.

It's worth mentioning that Ferelden seems to have changed, too -- while the first game could be quite lush at times, this one is much more stark and barren. The enemies are darker in shade and slimmer than the first title, and the heroes are less shiny and more rugged. Of course, the demo only consisted of about ten minutes of gameplay (which, in Dragon Age time, is as good as nothing), but especially if it's representative of the larger game, we're in for a rougher ride.

That framed narrative is the key, however -- BioWare isn't just turning the sequel into "Dragon Effect," it's actually baking a story into the game that allows the developers to go bigger cinematically and thematically. We don't yet know how Hawke's story will play out -- Laidlaw promised that players would make decisions that show how "the Chantry's fallen to pieces" and the world is brought to war. But however it's done, we'll be hearing about it from an NPC as we play.

City of Heroes: Going Rogue Preview

CITY OF HEROES is now in its sixth year – an achievement few games can claim – and NCsoft's superhero MMO is showing no signs of slowing down. I recently visited Paragon Studios to have a look at the upcoming expansion, City of Heroes: Going Rogue.

Ever since the last City of Heroes expansion – City of Villains – way back in 2005, players have desired a way to change their superhero into a being of malevolence. The team behind the game even had plans to allow for that at the launch of CoV, but it was a system that they weren't entirely happy with, so it was put on the backburner. City of Heroes: Going Rogue brings with it a system the team is finally satisfied with, allowing villains to become heroes and heroes to become villains.

The way it works is this: while playing the game, after level 20, enemies will occasionally drop "tips," which allow players to play a special mission. After playing about 10 "tip" missions, a morality mission opens up, and players have the choice of moving to a new alignment. Heroes may become vigilantes, vigilantes can become villains (or go back to hero), villains can go rogue, and rogues can become heroes or villains. There are rewards for cycling through, but there are also rewards for consistently sticking with hero or villain. Although being neutral has its own rewards, being a vigilante or rogue gives players access to the entire game – even parts of the game that were originally exclusive to hero or villain. In addition, vigilantes and rogues can team up with anyone.

The tip missions range in size, from very quick to something a little more involved. The morality missions are meant to serve as the culmination of a good deal of effort, so they're more extensive. They also follow a loose story arc of sorts, and you will see recurring characters and themes as you progress around the alignment circle.

It's all a bit complicated, though, and can be pretty daunting for new players, so along with the alignment system, a new area called "Praetoria" is being introduced. Well, it's not entirely new; veteran players may recognize it as one of the cities in an alternate dimension that had been occasionally featured within the game. Here it is fully fleshed out and playable. It serves as a training ground for players to get used to switching alliances.

Praetoria is a utopian metropolis of sorts, run by a hero known as Emperor Cole to some and Tyrant to others. His grip on his society has naturally caused his people to splinter into two groups – the Loyalists and the Resistance – and which side you take is totally your personal choice. But beware, for your choice can have far-reaching and permanent implications such as the death of your mission contacts.

Watch the new trailer!
For a game as old as City of Heroes is, Praetoria is surprisingly sleek. The buildings mix different architectural styles, and the slow drift from pristine in the center to ghetto at the city limits serves to show where Cole/Tyrant's interests lie. The details, such as the propaganda spread around the city, serve to flesh this idea out further.

Players creating a character in City of Heroes: Going Rogue will have access to all 10 hero archetypes, rather than the five that heroes and villains are each limited to. In addition, two new power sets are available – dual pistols and necromancy.

I messed around with a low-level dual pistols character for a while, and I have to admit, it was pretty neat. Higher level characters have access to much cooler maneuvers, of course, with bullets whizzing and spinning everywhere as well as a multitude of status effects to inflict.

While the expansion doesn't seem to add a great deal of content to the endgame (players will have to wait for a post-expansion patch for that), it looks like it creates a huge amount of content for good players who want to be bad and vice versa. We'll have to wait until it is released in August to get a full feel for how City of Heroes: Going Rogue has shaped up.