I’m not sure why they are announcing this now and why they didn’t talk about it a few weeks ago at E3, especially after the 2/1/2011 flyer in the Awakening expansion, but it looks like it’s officially being announced today. Bioware has hinted at big news and now IGN is saying the Dragon Age sequel has been effectively confirmed.
Oh, and the latest expansion for Dragon Age came out on Tuesday. From what is being said on the official boards it’s pretty solid, but I haven’t played through it yet.
Awesome! Half the time when a company names a game “origins” or “beginnings”, either the game is never released or the sequel never materializes. It’s an attempt at creating new IP artificially rather than organically. Of course that was never really a concern for dragon age, since it was the bees knees.
Of course the real question is why the hell would they call it DA2 when they already established a naming scheme. Why not “Dragon Age: The Roads of Trials”, for example.
I congratulate Bioware for successfully divesting itself of the D20 system and having internal IP cash cows. That and I’ve genuinely enjoyed my time with Dragon Age and Mass Effect 1 & 2.
Are there any rumors about whether Dragon Age 2 will import info from 1 the way Mass Effect did? I’m playing DA1 on the PC (when I get the time), but it’s far easier for me to get through games on the 360 at the moment.
Where in the world did you come up with that? What an awful name.
Anyway, is there any information on whether or not this is going to pull from your DA1 decisions, ME2-style? Considering how much the expanions for DA1 have kind of crapped up the original DA experience, nullifying endgame decisions or offering retarded alternate universe narratives, I’m assuming not, but stranger things have happened.
I have no way to back this up but I thought the sequel was supposed to take place much later? Like 50 or 100 years after the 1st game?
Maybe I imagined that.
If it were 100 years later it would no longer be the Dragon Age.
Cool. I didn’t love Dragon Age, but I had a good time playing through it.
Let’s go through their notes on their webpage:
Experience the epic sequel to the 2009 Game of the Year from the critically acclaimed makers of Dragon Age: Origins and Mass Effect 2.
Bah, that doesn’t tell us anything at all.
You are one of the few who escaped the destruction of your home. Now, forced to fight for survival in an ever-changing world, you must gather the deadliest of allies, amass fame and fortune, and seal your place in history. This is the story of how the world changed forever. The legend of your Rise to Power begins now.
Hmmm. I got fooled into thinking this paragraph was different at first. But really, aren’t all fantasy stories in RPGs this story? I suppose in some of the origin stories in Dragon Age, you didn’t escape the destruction of your home, so this is different.
Key Features:
* Embark upon an all-new adventure that takes place across an entire decade and shapes itself around every decision you make.
Ooooh! Takes place across an entire decade? A bit of Fable mixed in? I like the sound of that.
* Determine your rise to power from a destitute refugee to the revered champion of the land.
Meh. Same as ever. But it’s a good formula.
* Think like a general and fight like a Spartan with dynamic new combat mechanics that put you right in the heart of battle whether you are a mage, rogue, or warrior.
Fight like a Spartan? Some kind of God of War type combat system for the moment-to-moment combat perhaps? That’d be kind of neat. Of course the “think like a general” part implies you can still give orders, so maybe not. Also it sounds like they’re keeping the mage/rogue/warrior trio and not adding anything new.
* Go deeper into the world of Dragon Age with an entirely new cinematic experience that grabs hold of you from the beginning and never lets go.
Right. Next.
* Discover a whole realm rendered in stunning detail with updated graphics and a new visual style.
Admittedly, the two concept art images up on the site do make the game look very different from DA: Origins. I thought the original was pretty ugly, so I’m liking this bullet point.
I rather doubt it. According to Game Informer DA2 will have a new hero and take place in a different part of the world.
That’s good. We see remarkably little of Thedas in Dragon Age. I’m honestly more interested in the remnants of The Tevinter Imperium and the various and sundry European analog countries than I am in that garbage island.
Bah, brand new hero? What about my Archdemon-slaying rogue? I bet if they let you import your save they’ll just give a small blurb summarising what happens to your hero before the start of the game.
It’s from Campbell’s hero’s journey. It was a clever literary reference, ya philistine.
It has to happen. You retire heroes in tabletop games because eventually there’s nowhere left to go after you destroy the exiled god and liberate the dragon freeholds. Depending on who you make king, what you do with the circle, what you do with the ashes, and some other major plot elements, I could see it influencing some of the background setting, but if it’s in a different nation, they would be able to minimize the impact. I’m glad that the hero won’t be returning for another trip through the ringer. There’s only so many fantastical things I can buy happening in a single lifetime.
I’m very much looking forward to DA2 and I’m glad to see it announced. I expect that the game will account for your decisions from the first game, even though you don’t play as the same character. It would be cool if you could actually meet your character from the first game during your travels in the sequel.
But will the Morrigan plotline be left hanging, or will they weave it into the new story somehow? It’ll be interesting to see how they handle that.
I would hope that will be a big thing. I still don’t know what in the hell the Old Gods were supposed to be. Were they originally dragons? Were they originally more than dragons? Does that mean that the product of our hot, sexy underpants-on action is going to be some kind of half-lizard disaster from the set of V? If it’s just a dragon, why would you even want to attempt to launch that out of your nethers in the first place? Do dragons even have souls? The only ones I’ve met have either just been animals or they had the soul of a tweaked out carjacker and the charm of a bag of assholes. I bang a gong so you try to give me a flaming enema? Really?
I have to think that they have a plan for where they were going to go with that.
Ah. That’s what you were going for. There’s only one road. That at least makes it sound a little better.
Still, that leads the way to Dragon Age: The Woman as Temptress or Dragon Age: The Crossing of the Return Threshold. Which… actually, I’d play the first one.
Desslock, if you swing by the thread: please keep us informed with hints on whether the combat will be nearly-full-custom tactical encounters like in Origins or assembly line style like in Awakenings and ME2.
Don’t care a bit about the continuation of my character, but this won’t be a day-one purchase until someone confirms the quality of the party combat. Oh, and high dragon battles.
Not surprised. Consider how long DA was in gestation. Better part of a decade; remember the cover story from CGW way back in 2003 or 4?
That and the game was essentially finished by the end of 2008. I know that Biowareians played through it over their holiday break that year, and it was supposed to ship on PC early in 2009 and the consoles later in 2009 until EA decided to unify the release date and marketing.
True but I could see the sequel naming conventions go many different directions
Dragon Age 2
Dragon Age 2: Origins
Dragon Age: Origins 2 (in which the next game can simply be called Origins 3: A Dragon Age Tale)
Dragon Age: Shadows of a New Subtitle
Dragon Age 2: Shadows of a New Subtitle