Dragon Age 2 - Chat Transcript

There was a GamesCom chat with BioWare's Fernando Melo and Mike Laidlaw on Dragon Age 2 that we missed last week but an edited transcript is available. There are comments on the new tactical camera, the female version of Hawke will be revealed soon, combat on the PC version and more. A bit on cross-class synergies:

Mike Laidlaw:
12:54 [Sipho]
Will there be new spell combos?
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Better: there will be cross-class combos. You'll be able to make your rogues, warriors and mages team up to dish out some serious hurt. I loved spell combos and think it's only fair. So, for example, you could sunder someone's armor as a warrior, and then a rogue could take advantage of that to sink a blade into the target, doing massive damage.

More information.

"In the hunt for Cool New Features (CNF), Team DA2 today announced 'cross class combos' "… Eventually you won't know what's happening in combat: oops I farted here, and some guy over there died because my rogue somehow used that distracting oppurrtunity to shove a stilleto into his back - must have been the 'Fart of death combo;-) This sounds like Microsoft's feature creep: no, seriously, you really, really need new feature X to optimally use our software! I imagine new DLC will be realeased which adds additional CNF too as time goes by. Ah what a bright future!

Better: there will be cross-class combos. You'll be able to make your rogues, warriors and mages team up to dish out some serious hurt.

Well, I bet it will be QTE on consoles…

Originally Posted by Dhruin
So, for example, you could sunder someone's armor as a warrior, and then a rogue could take advantage of that to sink a blade into the target, doing massive damage.

Well, what do you know. In my times it was called "using the party".

Why can't they just put resources into making the world and the npcs more interactive and better exploration…

My hope is that bioware would finally get rid of their mission hub design formula and begin building more open gameworlds.

In the quote above, note that he dodged the question. He didn.t answer if spell combos are in.

The way I understand it, is that it's different from standard "using the party": It's basically spell combos, but across the classes. So instead of one mage casting grease, and another mage casting fireball to ignite a whole area, you now have stuff like rogue stun + a warrior 2H special swing = decapitate.

Or some such thing. That was just a made up example. You get the idea.

Originally Posted by mbuddha
Why can't they just put resources into making the world and the npcs more interactive and better exploration…

Because combat is king, I assume.

Geez, you guys make this sound like a bad thing. While I agree there are plenty of other things they could improve, this in itself is still good.

Can't we change the name of The Let's Rant and Rave About Oblivion Thread to The Let's Rant and Rave About Dragon Age 2 Thread (even that I have not played it)?

Originally Posted by Phonix
Can't we change the name of The Let's Rant and Rave About Oblivion Thread to The Let's Rant and Rave About Dragon Age 2 Thread (even that I have not played it)?

That way we would need a thread about every Bioware and Betherda game

Okay, then Let's Rant and Rave about Bethesda & Bioware

Losing spell combos would be bad in my eyes…

Originally Posted by Thrasher
Losing spell combos would be bad in my eyes…

He wouldn't say that he loved spell combos if they weren't going to be in the sequel too.

Who knows? The doublespeak rampant in this kind of hype for AAA titles should be watched bery carebully.