Dragon Age: Origins E3 Previews
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First up is AtomicGamer:
During the course of the demo, we got an outline of the back story. In a land where dragons still roam, many are too distracted by the giant fire breathing lizards to remember an even greater threat; the arch-demon and his dark spawn, the blight. They haven't been sighted in centuries, but an ancient order known as the Grey Wardens keeps a vigilant watch against their return. Well, the dark spawn are back, so it's time for you to step into the boots of an epic hero. You'll join the ranks of the Grey Wardens and kick all sorts of fantastical butts, while finding treasure items with crazy names, and getting it on with elf girls.
The demo began on this last romantic note, with our hero surveying his party which was camped around a fire in the wilderness. One party member is Liliana the archer. She's the good, wholesome type, and she likes it when you do good heroic things. So much so, that she'll even be your girlfriend. Awwww.
Then we have Ten Ton Hammer:
While talking things over with the sorceress, we discover that she needs a book her evil mother still carries. She asks us to go retrieve it for her so she can gain access to some more nasty spells. She seems persuasive enough so we rallied our team and went to talk with the old crone. Upon our arrival she seemed to be expecting us. After going through the choices on how to handle the situation we decided to take the book by force. Rough choice, because the old hag turned out to be a dragon!
Once the change was made, the game shifted into full combat mode and players were casting, swinging, and hacking away at a massive dragon. Most Bioware games are plausible and Baldur's Gate was formatted on that game mechanic. Dragon Age does allow players to make all the combat choices for their party, but the action moves very fast. There is little to no downtime and before we knew it spells and swords were flying. This boss-style fight moves fast and give players plenty of options. The demo ended with our party finishing off the dragon and retrieving the tome for our shady sorceress companion.