Dragon Age - Hands-on & Interviews @ GameBanshee

A comprehensive Dragon Age preview and two interviews are up at GameBanshee after they had the opportunity to travel to Edmonton to play the game and spend some time with lead designer Mike Laidlaw, Ferret Baudoin and Mark Darrah. Coming from an RPG site, this is a must-read for anyone curious about Dragon Age with some genuine first-hand experiences. From the preview:

During the aforementioned boss fights (the Ogre battle at the top of the Tower of Ishal, for example), keeping on top of all your characters’ abilities and locations is of the utmost importance. In the previous example, you’ll quickly discover that the ogre can charge characters from a distance or pick them up for a crushing attack that will most likely result in the condition known as death. He also has an obscene amount of health, so I was constantly pausing to keep my party members away from the ogre’s death grip while also setting up backstabs and making use of my characters’ ranged attacks and spells whenever the ogre turned his attention toward someone else. I suppose you could rush into some battles haphazardly using only a couple of primary talents, but you’re going to have some casualties from time to time and you’ll end up unnecessarily using quite a few health poultices and other one-shot items.

Should a character fall in combat (including the protagonist), they become incapacitated for the remainder of the battle. If all characters fall, you’re forced to load your last saved game. If at least one character survives, then all fallen characters stand back up when the battle is over. As a penalty for being incapacitated during combat, a character receives a persistent debilitating injury. Some of the injuries my characters sustained were “broken bone” (penalty to dexterity), “torn jugular” (penalty to constitution), “cracked skull” (penalty to cunning), “deafened” (penalty to defense), and “coughing blood” (penalty to fatigue). All of these injuries can stack, so it’s important to keep your most susceptible characters at a distance or they’ll wind up in a devastatingly weakened state. To remove a persistent injury, you must return to your party camp or use an injury kit. As with poultices, each kit has a certain level of potency that determines how much damage it’s able to repair (lesser injury kits heal a single injury and a small amount of health, for example).

…From the interview with Mark Laidlaw:

GB: From what I've played so far, the game is very linear, at least during the first few hours. At what point does it open up to free exploration?

Mike: Yeah. Whereabouts are you?

GB: I just drank the darkspawn blood to become a Gray Warden.

Mike: Oh, yeah. You've got one dungeon, and then you get the world back. It's going to open up a lot. The reason we have a linear opening is largely for a couple of reasons: one, to establish the setting and story. Because it's a brand new IP, if you just drop people into a world they don't know, then there can be kind of like a degree of confusion.

And we're trying to build a story that's got its own dramatic, you know, impetus, and that kind of stuff. So I think a linear opening causes people to kind of understand, okay, here's the role. Here are the events that lead to me becoming a Grey Warden proper, which you just did.

Then you basically get to see how that plays out. And at that point, what you're about to come to the realization of is that I’m going to need to gather an army. And at that point, it's up to you. How are you going to do it? Because you basically take charge.

…and Mark Darrah:

GB: Are there entire areas that are inaccessible to you if you make specific choices?

Mark: Yeah. There are certain areas that are only accessible with certain characters, and depending on the choices you make, you may not actually even get some characters. That would block off entire parts of the game.

More information.

This is exactly what I have been wanting to know about DA:O. Definite must-read for anyone who wants to know how the attributes and skills and talents work.

Hoo yeah, finally. Now we're talking.

I like the sound of the persistent wounds. OTOH complete health regeneration (minus the wounds) in thirty seconds sounds a bit munchkiny. The mechanics sound pretty good in other ways too; of course it all depends on how it plays. Interest level +3.

The article was a joke.
Mentioned Manson only once and some other key words were missing altogether!

Anyway, finally an informative read about DA.
At least on paper, mechanics sound solid and I haven´t found any of mentioned aspects really off putting.
Still, I´d like to hear a bit more about AI and combat encounter design to have these mechanics put into better perspective.
However, I´m certainly looking forward to the game more after reading this.

My interest in this game rose from -5 to + 5 when reading the gamespot preview.
Unfortunately, I don't have a good enough computer to play the game….nor can I at the moment afford an Xbox 360….

Luckily, I still have about 50 games or so I can play

Surely some of the most interesting news about DA so far, but GameBanshee won't load for me.

Ya know, my bf pointed out that Bioware games follow the same kind of formula these days: you start out as some hero, follow a linear path towards becoming a jedi/spectre, then have access to a world map. Not that I care that much, but I just think it's funny now that I realize that Dragon Age is doing the same thing with becoming a "gray warden"

BioWare? Formulaic? No! You don't say?

I just hope there's actually a difference in length of gameplay this time around; they seem quite evasive when it comes to revealing how many hours this game will provide I can only dream that it'd be as epically long as BG2.

I don't think they've been particularly evasive. It's just hard to say exactly how long it'll take, especially for a game with lots of optional content and a variety of possible gameplay styles. What I'm getting is "big" -- i.e., easily 60 hours, possibly 120 if you take it slow.

I really "hate" this great preview! I was sold on DA ever since it reappeared in the spotlight… But with this informative preview, I know I will start to loose sleep again…

The wait is going to be unbearable…

Interesting info - most of it sounds positive. Some comments:
1) Not sure I'm as bowled over as the author by the new "AI" …which could involve the user tinkering endessly to try and find the right behavioral combos ;-) kind of defeats the point of "AI". I always just turn it off and run the combat myself. That said, I have played some games that have done this well, so it is possible.
2) Like the persistent wounds - a la Drakensang - makes sense
3) no mage/magic specifc skills except friggin 'herbalism'!? They have clear thief and warrior type skills (in the usual DnD sense). Just seems like an obvious asymmetry. And yes, I know skills != talents
4) crafting magic items sounds like it's not really much of an option here. Enjoyable pastime in Elder scrolls and NWN so losing it will be rather sad. Making potions is not quite as exciting.
5) Random encounters when travelling - good!
6) graphics are really not that great, an incremental improvement over NWN2. Yes, I know that's not the focus, but some people have been raving about how good they are…so I'm a tad disappointed.
7) inventory management not really covered? Is it tabbed? Is there the usual paper doll?

Originally Posted by booboo
Interesting info - most of it sounds positive. Some comments:
1) Not sure I'm as bowled over as the author by the new "AI" …which could involve the user tinkering endessly to try and find the right behavioral combos ;-) kind of defeats the point of "AI". I always just turn it off and run the combat myself. That said, I have played some games that have done this well, so it is possible.

I especially liked this bit. I've really, really wanted a possibility to give standing orders to the party, of the kind described here. I'm willing to give the game a great deal of slack in other ways if this is implemented well.

2) Like the persistent wounds - a la Drakensang - makes sense

Same here; not so sure about the 30-second regen. I'm glad they got rid of the compulsive camping imposed by the D&D system, though.

3) no mage/magic specifc skills except friggin 'herbalism'!? They have clear thief and warrior type skills (in the usual DnD sense). Just seems like an obvious asymmetry. And yes, I know skills != talents

Agree. I definitely get a little vibe that the devs were more interested in the hack-and-slashers than the cerebral types here.

4) crafting magic items sounds like it's not really much of an option here. Enjoyable pastime in Elder scrolls and NWN so losing it will be rather sad. Making potions is not quite as exciting.

Neutral. I did spend a lot of time messing with crafting in the NWN's, but in the end I'm not really sure how much it added to the experience -- a lot of it was just kinda frustrating. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't miss it if it wasn't there.

5) Random encounters when travelling - good!

Agree.

6) graphics are really not that great, an incremental improvement over NWN2. Yes, I know that's not the focus, but some people have been raving about how good they are…so I'm a tad disappointed.

Everything's relative, I suppose.

7) inventory management not really covered? Is it tabbed? Is there the usual paper doll?

Seen that before -- there's a single party inventory, which is tabbed and sorted by type. It looks highly usable, although it gets rid of the encumbrance mechanic. I loathe the inventories in the Infinity Engine games and the NWN's, so from where I'm at, this sounds like a net improvement. (My personal preference would be for a tabbed, sorted, personal inventory with REALISTIC encumbrance limits, and a requirement to drop your rucksack when wading into a fight -- i.e., in combat, only retain access to items in quick slots, representing pockets, belt pouches, and such, à la Geralt's nifty costume -- but, alas, not the mechanics -- in The Witcher.)

By the way, and going by The Stolen Throne… drinking darkspawn blood sounds like a major YUCK! The impression I got is that they have more pus than blood…

Sounds great to me - but then I already knew I would try it regardless. Still the article got me a bit more excited about November.

Two things I really wanted to know. The Mage -> Shape changer specialization mentioned. Druid? Some Mage/Fighter hybrid? I wonder what that is all about. I have always enjoyed shape changing abilities in a game.

The other is whether there is any cross over between the classes. THere was talk about skills being shared. But could you have a Rogue who also could do some magic? Maybe that would be the "Bard".

Eager to know more so I can start thinking about my character. Leaning towards Elf Ranger or Elf Mage (Shapechanger) from what little I have read so far.

Originally Posted by wolfgrimdark
But could you have a Rogue who also could do some magic? Maybe that would be the "Bard".

Only if he can play on lute (and only he).
Anyway bard is a class with great ambitions which are never used in games(ie. playing in taverns for money). I'd like to see him as non-cobat and non-magic class but with some thief skills + playing and singing. But there is no way for something like that in Dragon Age - game about dark & gritty battles.

In The Stolen Throne, Bards are an order of spies and assassins who are also skilled entertainers and storytellers (which is how they get close to their targets). Dark, as you say. And gritty. Not to mention mature, at least in the case of hot girl elf bards.