E3 has come and gone and provided us with a pair of promotional videos (the Lead Them trailer and the Stand Together video; the latter featuring the female Inquisitor and also showing the "war table" as more of a Round Table than a Last Supper imitator), two demos, and a ton of information. As always, spoilers below.
Mike Laidlaw talked to joystiq's Susan Arendt about the size and scope of the game and wanting to create enough content to give it replay value:
"In each level, I wanted there to be at least one cave, one dungeon, one something that no-one tells you to go to," he explained to me. He said that his design team had to "break some old habits" as they were creating the enormous open world that would become Inquisition. Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age 2 both made sure the player knew about every last thing they could possibly do, and Laidlaw wanted to make sure not everything was quite so obvious. It meant that there might be content in Inquisition that might never be seen, but it also meant that there was a point to exploring the game's stunning locations beyond just hitting the next point of interest on the map.
The point has been made by the devs that all the discovery and bits of story available relates to the major plots, something I've found lacking in other open worlds.
Laidlaw also said there were more romances in DAI than in any previous game, which, given that DA2 had five (including DLC Sebastian) sets the bar. I'm not sure that means each Inquisitor will have six plus options, but rather there many available in-game in total.
[A quick add: Steve Butts at IGN tells us "You’ll be able to claim the banner points in the game in the name of the Hero of Ferelden," which is the first definitive thing I've heard about our prior heroes in the franchise.]
Among the many videos shown at E3 the most engaging was the demo (EA deleted the full version I found [June 17th: at the moment it is back], but you can see a different, truncated version with Mike Laidlaw being interviewed by IGN). The storyline from the IGN link (which is the follow-up plot to the now-deleted demo, a fairly full description of which can be found here via Gieson Cacho of the Mercury News) takes place in the Hinterlands (which includes Redcliffe) and has the Inquisition attempting to resolve the Mage-Templar conflict (providing a juxtapose to the Crestwood demo from last year, where the Templar's were the main enemy there, while here it's the Mages). Just this single region is larger than all of Dragon Age: Origins combined. Ryan Taljonick provides a succinct plot summary:
You must also send operatives from your party of playable characters to embark on missions on your behalf--and these won't always go down as planned. In my demo, a party member [Leliana] is sent to go undercover and infiltrate a Mage stronghold [in the Hinterlands]. Unfortunately, by the time the player's party arrives to mop up [Inquisitor plus Sera, Dorian, and Iron Bull], said party member has been captured and is being tortured. We recover her, but she (understandably) has developed a hatred for Mages--so, during a crucial interaction with the stronghold's Mage leader, she has little patience for words, and goes on a murderous rampage of revenge. Would this have played out differently had another party member been sent in her stead? Oh, yes--or so I'm told.
This emphasizes the consequences of actions, just like the Crestwood demo did before, and focuses on the impact of events on characters (Leliana here, Varric before). It appears as though the Venatori are the main faction of Mages the inquisition will fight. Going back to the plot, Taljonick leaves out that the decision to send Leliana is made at the Inquisition table (as Cacho mentions above) and that choosing her is optional--although it seems clear given the story that bringing Dorian along provides extra oomph to the plot (as he has a connection I won't spoil here). The deleted demo prefaced this with an earlier mission discovering the location Leliana would infiltrate--the group varied in that Vivienne was along instead of Dorian--and its major feature was battling a dragon.
It wasn't entirely clear where the exact boundaries for the game location for the Hinterlands was, but assuming the usual north-south orientation of the map shown this is my guess:
IGN had another interesting reveal:
Stretching over two nations with 10 unique terrains ranging from forests to deserts, swamps to mountains, Dragon Age: Inquisition will be absolutely massive when compared to the previous two games. “This is the biggest game in our studio’s history,” Darrah told us. “It’s the largest RPG we’ve ever made. There is more story-based content in Dragon Age: Inquisition than any other BioWare RPG." Noting that this is the first open-world game from BioWare, Mark also let us know that Inquisition “will set the bar for all of our future games.”
We already knew that it was the largest, most story-intensive game from BioWare, but here we get definitive clarification that we will not be going anywhere outside of Orlais or Ferelden. From other comments it seems like the ten terrains actually means there are ten areas to explore in the game. Here are the locations we know of along with one I believe will appear (anything I list as "confirmed" without comment has appeared on the official website, everything else is qualified):
-the Hinterlands (confirmed, includes Redcliffe)
-the Western Approach (confirmed, includes Griffon Wing Keep and the Adamant Fortress)
-the Emerald Graves (confirmed; within the Dales, likely the Arbor Wilds area)
-Emprise du Lion (confirmed; within the Dales)
-Crestwood Hills (confirmed via the Crestwood demo; it's in Ferelden)
-Frostback Pass (confirmed via the Crestwood demo; this area could mean no Kal'Hirol, given its proximity to Orzammar, incidentally)
-Nahashin Marshes (confirmed via the Crestwood demo)
-The Southern Desolation (confirmed via the Crestwood demo)
-Halamshiral (confirmed, presumably part of a larger region)
-Therinfal Redoubt (confirmed, although where in Ferelden is uncertain)
-the Fade (confirmed)
-Kal'Hirol (the Arldom of Amaranthine; this is speculation you can find via the link)
This makes for 10 locations (Therinfal and Halamshiral are within larger areas), although I wouldn't take this list as definitive--name changes could have happened since the Crestwood demo and some areas may be too localised or briefly visited to be full-fledged areas (ala the Fade).
E3 also featured several character profiles beginning with Sera:
It’s on the streets of Orlais that the Inquisition finds Sera—or rather, she finds them.Sera‘s an outsider, a rogue elf who senior writer Luke Kristjanson describes as a “troublemaker.” She brings to the Inquisition the perspective of the little people caught between powerful factions as the world spins out of control. “Sera is brash and fun,” Kristjanson says. “She takes nothing seriously until it deserves to be taken seriously, and not much does. She’s only seen power from the underside, a view that gives her an almost complete lack of respect for the arrogance behind authority.” The Inquisition is the fastest Sera's ever seen someone “in power” move. She's never had the chance to get in early and make sure those heading to the top stay humble. But there are also big questions that she needs to answer for herself—“hole in the sky” big—and the Inquisition seems like the place to do it. “The phrase I keep going back to is ‘she's not about what's right, she's about what's right now’,” Kristjanson says. “Doing something for the ‘greater good’ makes her angry, because she thinks that's shorthand for ‘let's hurt people who don't deserve it because it's easier.’ But she's got her own reasons for helping too. Play nice with the vulnerable and you’ve always got friends, and friends are better than power.” “Sera is raw and genuine,” says Kristjanson. “I’ve written plenty of characters who were too clever for their own good. Sera hasn’t had to test her beliefs, so she brings a level of honest discovery that is cutting and refreshing. I had a lot of fun with her voice in particular. The actor nailed it day one. From the first voice test, she was Sera. Her laugh is great.” With the fate of Thedas hanging in the balance and pressures mounting, Sera’s reckless abandon won’t win over every party member she fights alongside. “Sera likes people who try (even if they fail), and is suspicious of people who are so powerful they don’t have to,” Kristjanson says. “There are people she loves, people she hates, and people she loves to hate. That draws a line, in and out of the party.” In short, Sera speaks her mind. “She makes no secret of her feelings,” Kristjanson says. “I don’t think she could if she tried.”
Qunari are known across Thedas as the brutal horned giants who descended from the north to nearly conquer the continent. These ruthless followers of a harsh philosophy enforce their will through the Ben-Hassrath: their spies and secret police. One brilliant agent did it all, hunting spies, rebels, and deserters until the day he finally broke. To preserve a valuable asset, his superiors sent him to Orlais to observe and report… and the Iron Bull was born. Today, Bull’s Chargers are famous mercenaries, fiercely loyal to the huge Qunari warrior who leads them into battles and taverns with equal enthusiasm. The Iron Bull still sends the Ben-Hassrath reports, but years of living outside Qunari rules have him wondering which identity is really him. Whoever he is, he’s more than happy to join the Inquisition and get paid to kill demons.
And Blackwall:
The Blight is ten years past. The Grey Wardens' prominence is decreasing again. The Wardens are known for their vigil; they keep watch for the darkspawn, for the Blight. But Blackwall isn't interested in just watching. He is absolutely invested in the idea of the Grey Wardens of legend: those who place themselves between the people of Thedas and the oncoming Blight, acting as their shield. To him, that's a Grey Warden, someone who protects others, who takes a hit so someone else doesn't have to. And if that's a Grey Warden, then it's his moral imperative to act, even when there's no Blight. There's more evil in the world than just the darkspawn, and he believes it's his duty to do something about it. He lives by that old saying: "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." When the Inquisition tries to get in contact with the Grey Wardens, they find Blackwall. He's traveling on his own, a bit of a loner. But with the world spiraling out of control, Blackwall sees the Inquisition as Thedas's last hope to restore order, and he realizes that he'll probably be able to do more good with its backing than by himself. He's a veteran. He's been through many battles, many conflicts, and he knows their price. He's aware that in wars, the people who call the shots are often safe in their fortresses. It's the soldiers who die. He's seen people with power abuse it and use it to manipulate others, and he absolutely hates that.
We also learned a little bit more about Vivienne [and Cassandra] (mostly just emphasising what we've heard before), and had Dorian Pavus confirmed (he was one of the characters from the 2012 survey leak), but no bio of him has been posted on the DAI website as yet.
Cameron Lee explained agents to gamermd83 and the essentials follow:
You earn agents as you essentially build up your Inquisition, and then from that you can use your agents and use that influence and power you built up through the Inquisition to do a variety of things: it could be hey go and get me this rare crafting material, it could be repair this bridge...it could be I want to go and start to look into this main part of the story. ... There are hundreds of operations that you can send your agents on, and those operations will change depending on the actions and decisions you make throughout the course of the game.
He added:
To progress through major parts of the story you have to have a certain amount of influence, your Inquisition needs to have a certain amount of strength.
And then talked about romances:
Romances are not about this sort of gamey approval rating; right so it's not like you can give people flowers and then sleep with them. Romance is a more nuanced and more organic and natural. There's these characters there with strong personalities with their own goals, [so] how you interact with them and how [you] may help or hinder or whatever their goals plays a part in that--a part in how your relationship builds with them as a "normal" relationship; and then from there what part do I want to take.
Speaking of Lee, he put his foot in his mouth when he told Matthew Codd at NZGamer:
We've got about 40 major endings, and then from that, we tried to calculate it, something like a thousand other smaller variations
This required Mark Darrah to Tweet out the qualification we've heard before that there are only a few unique endings, but about 40ish major variations. This isn't to pick on Cameron, but the news rekindled the wrong interpretation of the game's ending and a flurry of articles came out afterwards trumpeting it.
Xbox One will get the first DLC for DAI, although how long it will remain exclusive to that console is unknown (not long I'd guess). It's also not clear when the DLC will appear, given that just a couple of weeks ago the devs said that content won't be worked on until the game is finished (and we're still in alpha).
An interesting tidbit in an unrelated Reddit post related to the latest Assassin's Creed: the timeframes the anonymous insider gives for creating a character in-game fits the DAI release delay last year pretty spot on. If the game has to be shipped eight weeks prior to release, then we can expect it to be finished in early August.
Speaking of shipping, pre-orders of the DAI game guide have popped up on Amazon and the hardcover version includes DLC content (which isn't specified, but I'd guess equipment and that sort of thing as opposed to anything story-related).
While the game was well received, there was vague criticism from Jesse Cox:
Dragon Age has the usual bioware story fixins. Cool world...But it just doesn't FEEL new. Like an amalgamation of stuff I've seen before.
Twitter is not the best medium for saying anything substantive, but where does "feel" really takes us? It's a perfectly appropriate response (we all have a "gut feel"), but useless as informed criticism--I'm not implying that's Cox' intent (although subsequent Tweet's aren't helping), but it begs the question, what new stuff does he want to see? I have no idea and I imagine he doesn't either--what can they add when he doesn't know what he wants? Given that DAI is epic fantasy and has changed quite a bit from the previous versions, I'd guess Cox is simply tired of the genre--but my hypothesis is almost as useless as his Tweet. It will be interesting to read actual critiques once the game is released--I think Tom McShea at GameSpot had one of the most measured reviews from E3.
This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)
No comments:
Post a Comment