Although BioWare is probably best known for their Dungeons and Dragon’s based Baldur’s Gate series, Dragon Age isn’t another foray into the D&D universe. As Joint-CEO Ray Muzyka told us, “Dragon Age is the spiritual successor to Baldur’s Gate.” However, Dragon Age has nothing to do directly with Baldur’s Gate.
Although set against a traditional fantasy backdrop, BioWare is hoping to do something a little different with Dragon Age, and the world won’t be inhabited by Dwarves, Elves and Halflings – although it will be filled with Dwarf-like, Elf-like and Halfling-like races. While this may sound like a cop-out, Ray explained that BioWare wanted to try something a little different, but still wanted it to be familiar to fantasy RPG players.
The game resembles Neverwinter Nights, and it’s a party-based game just like Baldur’s Gate! Neverwinter Nights focuses on the single player experience, but the original official campaign lacked the NPC banter/world interaction of the NPCs in Baldur’s Gate 2. The two expansions rectified the lack of real-time party interaction wonderfully, however, and gave players more control over their party members. I loved the real-time combat engine (where your characters block, dodge, parry and attack all on-the-fly) used in Neverwinter Nights and Knights of the Old Republic; it really puts you into the heat of battle.
Many of the guys who created Planescape: Torment are busy working on Knights of the Old Republic 2 at Obsidian Entertainment while BioWare is developing Jade Empire and Dragon Age, and I have high hopes for the old Black Isle team.
I disliked Neverwinter Knights and Knights of the Old Republic, they were too streamlined for me. Dragon Age to me seems it will just build off the following their previous games built but not change anything significant to the formula, we’ll see.
To tell you the truth I’m still hoping for the perfect game : an RPG made by Bioware with a completely LINEAR plot based on an universe made form scartch and with a lot of FMV sequences.
All of a sudden I have four RPGs to look forward to (I assume Fallout 3 will be published eventually if Interplay doesn’t go bankrupt within the next few months). KOTOR was a great RPG, but too linear and too short for my tastes. I bet all the voice acting meant less time and money spent drawing out the story. KOTOR was a good ride that used Neverwinter Night’s combat system to great effect. If anything, I want the sequel to be less linear.
Neverwinter Nights wasn’t as good as Baldur’s gate 2 for two reasons: 1. The game wasn’t party-based (acquiring the aid of henchman isn’t the same as controlling a party of six characters). 2. The first official campaign lacked the same type of party narrative that brought the NPCs in Baldur’s Gate 2 to life (and Planescape: Torment I should add). Everything else was good even if the game didn’t allow you to return to old locations as new chapters in the story unfolded.
I loved the original Baldur’s Gate because the game world was so huge. It was the Morrowind of its time. You could explore any number of dozens of separate locations with some becoming accessible as the story progressed. Baldur’s Gate 2 sacrificed the exploration for a more focused story but still retained dozens of side quests and explorable areas unrelated to the main story that it almost made no difference. I’m tempted to play it again.
BioWare has a way of maintaining a good balance of combat and RPG elements in their RPGs. I’d love to see more/deeper stat-related dialogue options (or branching dialogue) a la Planescape, but I realise that most gamers have no desire to read a novel when playing an RPG (an RPG of all games). Sigh. I loved the fact that in Torment your character could talk his way out of most fights if he had a high enough charisma or intelligence rating.
So are you looking forward to Dragon Age, Gehn? I’ll probably need to upgrade my computer before I can enjoy it. I think I’ll just waste my money on a Playstation 2.
I’m interested cause the game looks beautiful but like I said I’m still waiting for an original universe made from scartch by Bioware.I probablyw ont’ buy it.
I’m more interested in Jade Empire because i liek teh oriental thematic (and im curious about the battle system).
The Playstation 2 couldn’t even hope to emulate the graphical beauty of this game. Lol.
What I meant was I have a list of PS2 games I need to buy and nothing will stand between me and the new Shining games. Nothing. Buying a PS2 instead of spending money upgrading my PC is perhaps money better spent.
Looks great to me actually… like a 3D Baldur’s Gate except it looks really beautiful unlike the likes of Neverwinter Nights… I’m sure it’s going to be great and I can’t wait to see what kind of rules and setting Bioware has cooked up
Those pictures with the crowd fighting below are sweet, hopefully it won’t have over the top requirements…
Really beautiful though, those places look almost as good as the Baldur’s Gate games except this time realtime 3D… Or as if they are renders… Very very nice though I hope the gameplay is a bit more exciting than the standard D&D style PC RPG too
pah people were saying NWN was the 3rd baldurs gate before that was released and I was dissapointed by that. If this truly is as story oriented and complex as baldurs gate then Id be a huge fan of it but as it is, im disillusioned.
Neverwinter Nights was developed with online gameplay in mind, which was why the original official campaign was relatively lacklustre when compared to Baldur’s Gate 2 (but remember that Baldur’s Gate 2 was going to be even larger with more routes through the game before BioWare was forced to cut ideas from it due to time constraints). Of course, BioWare soon realised that more players were interested in the single player story campaign, hence why BioWare has developed two new official expansion packs since then.
I wonder if we’ll ever see another D&D RPG of the same quality as Baldur’s Gate, or Torment or even Dark Alliance (the last time I checked Interplay lost the rights to sell anything with the D&D logo stamped on it because Interplay missed a payment or sold its back catalogue of D&D games).
It doesn’t have to be D&D to be as great as Baldur’s Gate, it can use any battle system that is good…
This new game won’t use the D&D rules but it can be just as good as Baldur’s Gate or even better if they put enough effort into it… I don’t think it will be, I’m just saying it could be and the setting and rules don’t have anything to do with it… Baldur’s Gate would have been just as great if the places had different names and the rules used were a different made up set and not the D&D rules…
So, to sum up, don’t wish for a D&D rpg as great as baldur’s gate, wish for an rpg plain and simple as great as baldur’s gate
And Knights of the Old Republic linear? You can build up your characters any number of ways due to the skill and power trees and have three different classes to choose from at the beginning. Not to mention the enhancing items you can equip, the multitude of weapons and armor and the attachments to them. Plus you can visit the five or so planets in any order you desire and stumble across oodles of side quests along the way. And the characters got better and deeper the more you played with them.
