New Dragon Age Game - Expectations

PC Gamer has some expectations for a new Dragon Age game:

What we want from a new Dragon Age game



Bioware's epic fantasy RPG series is returning, and we're hungry for more.

Something new is being made in the Dragon Age universe. We don't know if it's going to be another huge hundred-hour RPG or something a little different. We do know that Sunless Sea's Alexis Kennedy is involved in some capacity—here's hoping for a little Sunless Sea oddness in the new game. Naturally, when news slips out of a new entry in a big series we start to comb over our experiences with the games we've played so far. Then, wishlists start to form. What should go? What would we like to see more of? Why is Dragon Age 2 definitely the best one? Here's what we want from a new entry in the series.

Better combat

I don't expect BioWare to reprise Origins' combat—that just isn't how big publishers make RPGs now, for better or worse. It would be nice to see a little more fine tuning when it comes to customising your party's tactics, though, which was streamlined in Inquisition with a system that wasn't quite as intuitive or useful as Origins' was. Origins let you program very specific conditions for when your characters use abilities. I'd like to see the next game offer that mastery. Players who want an easier time of it can just carry on playing Dragon Age like an action game, which is honestly how I've played it since the first game came out.

I don't mind that too much—Inquisition is more than serviceable as an action game and I can only see BioWare getting better at that in the years since its release—but offering more optional ways to strategise would please some parts of the series' fanbase.—Samuel Roberts

Less extraneous sidequests

We thought Mass Effect Andromeda would learn this lesson from Inquisition, but it sadly didn't. Low quality fetch or grind quests may pad out an open world, but they also slow down the structure of the game's story, and some players may obliged to complete all of them before moving onto the best parts of the game. Inquisition had that in particular—hence Phil's cry to leave the Hinterlands in Inquisition.

I love the open world environments of Inquisition, and the party banter is so good that you enjoy the sense of journey, and the tension that comes when you know a dragon fight is approaching. But you can have that sense of journey without tasking the player to do a bunch of extra stuff.—Samuel Roberts

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Huh, I didn't know production on a new DA game was officially announced… So that's great! I enjoyed most of DA:I, but the maps were too busy with filler crap, which carried through into ME:A. Wide open spaces are just fine, we don't need a <enter distraction here> every 50 feet.

I also agree: No more deep roads. It's DA's version of oblivion gates or Remnant ruins. Also, no more 'fade' levels.

More unique dragon battles with unique loot!

More awesome armor sets. And have armor with stats that make sense and actually mean something.

Improve the crafting system, or scrap it completely. DA:I was lame.

More bears. Or was it less bears? I forget now…

I think they will switch to more action oriented combat, they've been doing it slowly already.
Open World?… hard to say. Even sites that love BW ( Polygon) have been openly criticizing them for this direction lately.
Funny thing is they could actually do it, with some serious investment. Could see a TES like version of their own in this setting, has enough of lore and history as foundation…but they need to completely change their traditional design to accommodate.
Curios how they will handle the egghead though, has the potential to be their best villain so far, provided they don't screw it up.
They could also bring back origin stories, in some ways DA peaked right at the beginning.

Yes, I want to see a return to the DA:O style game, but with a better skills system and turn-based combat. Not likely to get it though.

Dragon Age Origins had a good start but the choice&consequence largely disappeared after the origin story bits and only re-emerged at the end with your chosen factions. Then there was the deep roads and the repetitive combat with the endless darkspawn. The bestiary was too limited, the spell selection too limited. I thought DA:O made a rough but goodish start to the series which could of gotten much better with the sequels when they built on the technology they had developed. That could of happened if not for Bioware being bought out by EA.

The tactical combat was good in DA:O but could of been better with more complexity added to the simulation. It was a good start. A shame the series ended with DA:O

DA:O style ended forever with DA:O.

DA2 -> Console Baby! Button Awesome!

DA:I -> More Console Baby!

Next Dragon Age -> Online Baby! Co-op! Multiplayer! The future is now!!

__

Pretty much.

Originally Posted by ChaosTheory
Huh, I didn't know production on a new DA game was officially announced…

Not officially announced (as in BioWare made a press release about it), but the DA team leads aren't hiding that they started production on something DA related a few months ago.

Originally Posted by ChaosTheory
I also agree: No more deep roads. It's DA's version of oblivion gates or Remnant ruins. Also, no more 'fade' levels.

I actually didn't mind the Deep Roads in DA:O, but I found the Fade levels dreadfully boring.

Originally Posted by RPGFool
DA:O style ended forever with DA:O.

DA2 -> Console Baby! Button Awesome!

DA:I -> More Console Baby!

Next Dragon Age -> Online Baby! Co-op! Multiplayer! The future is now!!

__

Agreed, sadly…

First two games had romances and gay romances. Third game had sex with animals in addition.
I expect 4th game to let you fuck children as well (of course they will not be human children so they can pretend it is not pedophilia like they pretended 3rd game didn't have sex with animal)

The very same PCG praised Bioware's "theme park" design in DA:I when the game appeared. Not just PCG though, every mainstream gaming site was extatic. After crowning it as GOTY, suddenly articles appeared with titles "leave Hinterlands" or "filler problem in DA:I", I mean, did they all praise a game without playing it first?

The only thing new dragon age needs is removal of grinding. And not just dragon age, but every game.

What I want from the next Dragon Age: more of that wonderful exploration I enjoyed so much in DA:I.
I don't care much about the story or combat or sex with sentient lesbian trees though in a Bioware game.

Originally Posted by Archangel
First two games had romances and gay romances. Third game had sex with animals in addition.
I expect 4th game to let you fuck children as well (of course they will not be human children so they can pretend it is not pedophilia like they pretended 3rd game didn't have sex with animal)

Ah, yes. The obligatory de-evolution of a Bioware thread into someone equating homosexuality with pedophilia.

Edit: Also, you seem to be suggesting that the Iron Bull romance was 'bestiality'. So what you're saying is, despite the fact that he is both mentally and physically almost entirely an adult humanoid except for having horns, you're equating that to someone, for example, fucking a sheep. So you're either selectively dumb in service to shoehorning in homophobic comments on a topic that didn't really give you a lead in to it, or you're just plain dumb.

Originally Posted by TheSnarkyShaman
Ah, yes. The obligatory de-evolution of a Bioware thread into someone equating homosexuality with pedophilia.

I don't know where you read that in his post. He was saying that the first two titles had both straight and gay romances, the third had bestiality, and he expects the next will have pedophilia. There's no equation, and if there were, he'd also equate straight romances with pedophilia.

Originally Posted by TheSnarkyShaman
Edit: Also, you seem to be suggesting that the Iron Bull romance was 'bestiality'.

I guess he did, so I can't argue with you on that one.

Originally Posted by TheSnarkyShaman
So what you're saying is, despite the fact that he is both mentally and physically almost entirely an adult humanoid except for having horns, you're equating that to someone, for example, fucking a sheep.

Best line ever.

Originally Posted by BoboTheMighty
I think they will switch to more action oriented combat, they've been doing it slowly already.

I hate to ask, but how much more actiony can they get after DA:I? Combat was a cascading rainbow of anime effects, with sparkles and fast-forwarded ninja moves.

Serious question, how can it get worse?

Originally Posted by TheSnarkyShaman
for example, fucking a sheep.

Animal abuse existed in Fallout2 (if you don't have enough caps to pay for a human slut), how come today's protestors were silent then? They weren't born I suppose…

In case someone forgot, it's a digital ones and zeros sheep, not an actual animal. Another thing, you didn't have to do it, it was your choice.

I'm against any kind of censorship - you don't want sheep in your games, don't buy them.

Originally Posted by ChaosTheory
Serious question, how can it get worse?

You have already used Tempest this hour, please wait 59 minutes or upgrade for 10 BitCoins.

Originally Posted by VarleyD
You have already used Tempest this hour, please wait 59 minutes or upgrade for 10 BitCoins.

Awesome.

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