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Rent's atomic number 4 reliable: Every bit excellent as Dragon Age: Origins was, it was not without its problems. It had exceptionally good writing, unassailable voice acting, and some truly unforgettable characters – part of why it was my favorite game of cobbler's last year – merely the difficulty balance was way off, the inventory was unwieldy, and if you played it on a console, your eyes may still not have recovered from its incomparable brand of vileness. BioWare is aware of entirely of these things, and is freehanded Dragon Years a stingy-complete renovation. Even the bits of Origins that worked got a instant look for look how they could be done punter to create an experience that feels fresh and refined.

"Dragon Age 2 looks better, plays healthier, and has an entirely new story," says lead designer Mike Laidlaw. Concerned that Origins both looked and played too "old fashioned," the design team precious to "give Dragon Age a gib of Adrenalin," as executive producer Print Darrah puts it. So about everything has been transformed someways, whether it's a minor pick off to smooth out some crenulated edges, or the sum reworking of an idea that never quite came together the way it should. But assume't worry, says Laidlaw. Information technology Crataegus oxycantha non look rather the aforesaid, but at it's heart, "IT's still Dragon Age."

In case you'ray not capable speed on Dragon Age 2, here's a quick cheat sheet. Although it has a 2 tacked on to the death of its name, it's not really a sequel in the classic sense. Although its beginning overlaps with the events of Origins, its range is far greater, spanning many years later on the first game's time build. In Origins, you chose a graphic symbol based on their origin storey, but in DA2 you are Hawke (male OR pistillate, your choice), unscheduled to flee your home in Ferelden and make your way as best you can in Kirkwall. You are not a revered Grey Warden, you'ray upright a refugee like everyone else fleeing the Blight, doing the best you can to keep your kinsperson and friends safe and fed. Hawke isn't a particularly glamorous hero, but that's the full point: the theme of DA2 is that there are nary Chosen ones, no pawns of prophecy – just people doing the best they rump on any given day.

Origins was totally about your hero gathering armies to combat a horde of Darkspawn, just the Blight is a specified blip in the execute of DA2. Instead, its stress is on Hawke's rise to power, which is shrouded in myth and legend. In the middle of a revolution, when the formerly mighty Chantry has get over whol but weak, Hakwe became the Best of Kirkwall and changed the human race – only how? That history, told in flashback by the overshadow Varric as he's interrogated by the determined Cassandra, is what will play out during your adventures.

Just about every aspect of Dragon Age got a second look for Dragon Age 2, but here are a couple of areas that received the to the highest degree dear from BioWare:

Combat

The combat in Origins had many failings, source with its demented difficulty. "Was the default background, especially on PC, too hard? Yea," admits Laidlaw. "'Normal' felt more similar 'Severely' to Pine Tree State." Even players who mastered the combat noticed some other issues: It frequently felt sluggish, the knave didn't feel much different from a warrior, and trying to be an archer retributory plain sucked.

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The tactical broadside of scrap returns, allowing you to pause the game and form a cohesive plan based on your current political party, but the quick pace of fights has been ramped up for those favoring a more than action-familiarised combat style. Combat in Origins often got bogged down past fighting animations – rather than actually throwing a magical spell or shooting an pointer, a character would see a big windup and then, finally, get just about to actually doing whatsoever it was you they were commanded to do. According to Laidlaw, BioWare wanted the militant in DA2 to feel more close and fewer look-alike "some invisible soul rolling D20s behind the scenes."

The design team also definite to inject a trifle of common sense into the combat. "If you're a mage, and you're carrying more or less this big peg, wherefore can't you hit someone with it?" asks Laidlaw, pointing out that ranged combatants, alike mages and archers, had little recourse when the fighting got up close and personal. Now, rogues and mages also have melee attacks – not particularly strong ones, but surely better than just permanent there and getting socked in the face.

One raw feature in DA2's combat is one you'll almost assuredly come to hate, but for all the right reasons: assassins, commanders, and devastating mages. These new specialized threats are blended in with more common enemies and have moves all their possess. They will also thril your arse. I ran into a few Assassins during my playthrough, and I'm pretty bound I could hear them giggling American Samoa they cut me to pieces.

Crafting

The crafting in Tartar Age: Origins made logical sense: Systematic to make, say, a wellness poultice, you had to ordinal learn the recipe, then find every of the necessary ingredients. IT was a fine arrangement if you only wanted to make one or two items, but the games' many unlike potions, poisons, and traps meant you were running around Ferelden with all kindhearted of components rattling around in your backpack. Fighting a demon with 87 frostrocks in your inventory is not heroic operating theater sexy, thusly the intact organisation has been redone. Now, rather than having to carry components around with you, you simply have to find their seed call at the world. Once you come across a strain of Elfroot, for example, all crafting vendors will have access to it – no need to bird bits and pieces vertebral column and forth. The challenge right away comes from finding the different sources of raw materials, and the different strains of components. It's a Former Armed Forces more elegant system, one that rewards exploration over hoarding, unclogging your inventory in the process.

Skill Trees

The linear progression of the skill trees in Origins meant that you frequently had to spend valuable points on talents you never had any design of using so that you could rile the one you actually wanted. It was a well-established and accepted system, but IT oftentimes sapped a lot of the use out of leveling up. The skill trees in DA2 are actually webs, more circular in nature and offer Thomas More than i path to the really Voluptuousness skills. Acquisition upgrades branch off from their humble skills, departure the way clear for other progressions. If you need to spend several levels making sure you're deucedly with a cuticle, you can, but your path to other talents is clear if you'd quite not bother. Thither all the same has to be some progression, of course – you can't go from acolyte to towering badass in just one parachuting – but the WWW definitely feels much more open and forgiving, allowing you to spend points the way you really want to, Eastern Samoa opposed to the way you have to.

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Visuals

Symmetric if you're willing to graciously forgive the technical limitations that made the console versions of Dragon Age: Origins so butt-ugly, IT's still demanding to argue that the PC version didn't look a bit dated. For all its magic and phantasy, Ferelden was a remarkably brown place and its inhabitants were the same old Lord of the Rings-style creatures that we've seen and killed a one thousand times. Dragon Long time 2 takes full advantage of the fact it's a story being told by a dwarf who has no trouble embellishing details to make for a Sir Thomas More exciting tale. Kirkwall is awash in color and composed like artwork. Matt Goldman took inspiration from sources as divers as Akira Kurosawa's Commode of Blood and Pieter Breugel's "Exult of Death." The shoot for is to non only make players "excited about what they're seeing," says Laidlaw, simply also to "make sure as shootin that the story being told is about the character, and that the scenery is drawing nidus to the people."

And to make the people look diverse from each other.True story: After coming back to Origins later on a very long break I completely forgot I was playing an elf until ane of the otherwise characters referred to me that way. It's a situation not promising to happen in DA2, where the elves sport extra pregnant eyes and ears, the dwarves assume't merely look suchlike clipped humans, and one ogre doesn't look suchlike a slightly redder version of the one two dungeons back.

The Hero

In Origins, you were a nameless, hard hero, only in DA2, you are the sleek-toned Hawke, a change that may be jarring to those who favored Origins's old school access to characterization. Which, as Laidlaw tells information technology, is not that many an players. "People generally hated the silent protagonist," atomic number 2 says, only that wasn't the only reason to adopt a main character who could speak for themselves; Having the hero stand stoically while drama erupted totally around them "seemed to be doing a ill turn to the storytelling." Recognizing that responding to an impassioned speech from Leliana away choosing a sentence from a bill of fare lacked a certain vital force, the Dragon Age team decided to take over a page from their colleagues across the hall.

The conversation in DA2 plays out much like that in Mass Effect, with players selecting a paraphrase of a dialog option from various points on a wheel. Hoping to avoid those situations where you think you're being flirty but land up sounding like a flick, the steering wheel in DA2 adds an icon in the pith to give you a better idea of the vibe you're about to convey. A heart is flirty, backer's wings indicate your treat-goody nature, and so on. There's still a bit of wriggle room, simply you should always closing up locution jolly much just what you meant to say. (During my playthrough, I wanted to just tell someone I thought they were cute and ended up inviting them to bed, only flirting is open to all manner of interpretation, I suppose.)

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In Origins, your companions either approved or disapproved of just close to everything you said and did, from how you handled quests to your conversations with them to the gifts you gave them. If they disapproved enough, they might decide not to pursue your commands operating theater just abandon you completely. In possibility, it allowed for a great deal of use playing, simply if you wanted to give birth the strongest crew, you were pretty much obligated to keep them every last riant. DA2 uses a similar mechanic, but with a far more than interesting bend: Instead of approval and disfavour, you now consume friends and rivals. Your companions volition have your spine nobelium matter what, but if they're your rival, there will forever Be a trifle of tautness between you. Rivalry doesn't mean they're your opposition, merely that you don't see the world quite the same way. If you're an upstanding, rule-following, law-imperishable kind of hero, then a companion with more flexible morality is more likely to comprise your rival. It's a particularly fascinating choice because one of your soonest political party members is your sibling (your brother or sister, depending connected what classify you chose), and as you might expect, a completely parcel out of baggage comes with them. Some options, such every bit combat moves or romance, will alone become available with a rival, nicely removing the urge to sporty toady to everyone following you around.

And then, Does it Work?

If you've made it this far, you're probably inquisitive if entirely of these new elements hail together in a way that's in reality an advance complete Origins, but still feels harmonious to the franchise. Stoppage worrying: Early signs point to "Oh, hell, yeah." The build I played was middling advance, and so I didn't take over access to everything Draco Age 2 has to offer, only what I experienced mat up like Origins with wholly of the fussiness removed. You'll notice little things immediately, ilk how junk loot is actually labeled as "Junk," making it very clear what you tail sell with a clear conscience, and be amazed at how so much a weensy change can soh greatly improve your experience. It's also gorgeous, flat on the Xbox 360; the visuals are something you'll actually enjoy atomic number 3 opposed to endure.

From what I saw, Dragon Age 2 is making whol the right choices, but we'll have to wait until March 8 to know for predestined.

Susan Arendt thinks Commander Shepard should have a cameo in Dragon Age II someways.