Dragon Age: Origins Previews
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With the horde of Blight streaming out from a rocky pass, the first thing BioWare did was pause the game. While Dragon Age combat can be played in real-time, the depth will come from the paused management of your party in the pseudo turn-based pause menu. More than just queuing up spells and attacks, the pause menu allows access to the "tactics" system.1UP.
"Essentially what we've done is expose the AI that runs the game to the player," said Laidlaw. On screen, a series of custom "if" statements allowed the player to customize each party member's combat behavior. "If attacked by [monster], use [weapon]" is an example of how specific the tuning can get. Several presets, such as a basic set of "archer" behavior, are of course included.
With the game paused, the player took control of the warrior Sten, using an ability that made him invulnerable to earthquakes. Taking control of the sorceress Morganna, the player cast an earthquake spell in a forward area. This allowed Sten to take point during the invasion, taunting incoming enemies while encircled by a protective earthquake.
Dragon Age further develops the inner-party interactions found in BG2. Not only will your party members interrupt conversations to give their two-pence or make sassy comments to each other, but they will also let their feelings affect gameplay. If you and a buddy are on good terms, he simply performs better in combat. You piss someone off too much, not only will he be less effective during battle, but he might just up and leave. For this demo, Kinsley was losing major approval points from both Sten and Morrigan (both of them voiced the opinion that defending Redcliffe's a big time-waster). Conversely, Lelianna totally gained points in her relationship/approval meter.
