Dragon Age: Origins Updated Q&A - Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, and Now

By Staff, GameSpotPosted Nov 26, 2008 2:25 pm PT

Dragon Age: Origins has a lot to live up to, considering its predecessors Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights. Executive producer Dan Tudge explains how the new game will stack up.

Dragon Age: Origins

BioWare's staff explains what you can expect from this new role-playing game.

Dragon Age: Origins is the next role-playing game from BioWare and will tell an epic story in a dark-fantasy world. Although the studio became a premiere console-game developer with 2003's Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic for the original Xbox, it really made a name for itself years earlier with the epic computer role-playing games Neverwinter Nights and the Baldur's Gate series, dating back to 1998. Yet the studio is determined to take all of the best features of its past games and make an even better, more-evolved role-playing game. Executive producer Dan Tudge explains.

GameSpot: We understand that Dragon Age: Origins is intended to be the spiritual successor to BioWare's best fantasy role-playing games, such as Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights. What was it about those games that you definitely wanted to capture in Dragon Age?

Dragon Age will attempt to offer an epic, story-driven experience that tops Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights in every way.

DT: Fans who loved the rich story, interesting characters, and tactical combat in the deep fantasy setting of Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights will love what we're doing in Dragon Age: Origins. We're capturing the same great spirit of story, exploration, tactical combat, and character progression that we delivered in those previous titles and bringing it to a dark, heroic fantasy setting. We've taken a lot of what we learned from creating Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights to make Dragon Age: Origins even better, so fans can expect a lot of what they enjoyed about those games, but with next-gen improvements.

GS: Both Neverwinter Nights and Baldur's Gate had long-running stories that spanned multiple games/expansion packs. Over the course of those stories, not only did players' characters become stronger, the characters and world around them changed: key characters died, and allies became traitors. How does the story in Dragon Age compare?

DT: BioWare has always focused on delivering deep, story-driven experiences, where your actions and choices have meaningful consequences. We're taking that even deeper with Dragon Age: Origins by introducing a new feature called "origin stories." You start the game by choosing and then playing through the origin story of your choice. You start off in a unique place in the gameworld, which sets up the way you become a Grey Warden and flavors the rest of the game in terms of your motivations, how you perceive the world, and how the world perceives you. Your choices will open up different story branches, dialogue options, affect how other characters treat you, and change the state of the Dragon Age world by the end of the game. Compared to our previous titles, the story and scope of Dragon Age: Origins is the most ambitious of any BioWare game yet.

GS: While most RPG fans enjoyed the Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights games, some hardcore players complained that the ethical alignment system wasn't completely balanced--for instance, some characters didn't truly play to their alignments, and also that playing an evil character wasn't nearly as fleshed-out an experience as playing a good character. How will these issues be addressed in Dragon Age?

DT: You can choose which type of hero or antihero you want to be, meaning that it won't always be clear which decisions are "good" and which are "evil." You'll face a lot of tough moral decisions along the way, and sometimes you may have to make seemingly evil decisions for the greater good. The choices in Dragon Age: Origins are not always black and white, but rather, shades of gray. The important thing to remember is that every choice you make will have a consequence. For example, there is a "party approval" system where members of your party may disagree with certain choices you make. If you keep making decisions that they don't like, they may get angry with you, or even leave your party.

GS: Those previous fantasy games were also known for having addictive, hack-and-slash gameplay with plenty of engaging tactical combat. What lessons have you learned from those previous games' battles, and how will they be applied to Dragon Age?

Heh! Time for a bit o' the rough-and-tumble! Dragon Age will feature tactical combat with pausing.

DT: Dragon Age: Origins uses a party-based tactical combat system that is really a next-gen evolution of "pause and play." The action is fast and happens in real time, so if you like to just get in there and hack-and-slash your way through your enemies, you can do that, but you will quickly learn that you will need to think much more tactically if you want to survive. With the pause-and-play system, you can pause the action, issue a string of robust commands to your party members, and then jump right back into the action. You'll have full control of each party member, so you'll have a lot of different abilities and attacks at your disposal, including magic and spell combos. You have a lot of control over the camera, too. You can zoom out to a tactical view so you can see all your enemies and direct your party, and you can zoom in so you're right in the thick of the action. That's where you'll want to be when you land a punishing death blow!

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137 Comments

  • detege

    Posted Aug 7, 2009 8:27 pm PT

    Damn it's overhyped alright, and I can't wait to buy the game, release it already!

  • Merlanni

    Posted Feb 12, 2009 7:19 am PT

    Overhyped and postphoned to release it at the same time as the console version.
    Can you believe it postphoned to release it at the same time as consoles? The community was dumbstruck, flabergasted.
    And now they release it when all the competition is releasing also.

  • haegint

    Posted Jan 13, 2009 2:37 am PT

    Sounds good, I definitely have it on my radar for 2009. However, all the features do not sound much different than what I have already in Neverwinter Nights 2. So I expect a NWN2 with different/newer graphics, different game world, story, weapons, etc but not really all THAT different. Which would not be a bad thing.

  • lambizkit

    Posted Dec 16, 2008 11:52 am PT

    Bennae66... I wouldn't say that it's 'the power', as you put it, of the XBOX 360 that simplifies the game but the makeup of the controller system. You can't deny that Oblivion was made for the XBOX 360 first and then ported over to the PC. Everything from the inventory layout and the map to the combat system screams console system unlike it's great predecessor Morrowind. In fact console systems are just now catching up to the depth of RPGs that the PC has enjoyed for so many years. Apart from that Dragon Age is looking and sounding better all the time. I have no doubts that Bioware will release yet again another classic RPG.

  • mankeyador

    Posted Dec 16, 2008 10:11 am PT

    I just wish it had your own character talking like in mass effect. Considering it's the same company made both games. Bioware is a large company now, but I wish they wouldn't spread their resources making 3 AAA games (mass effect 2, The Old republic, and dragon age). I think they should just focus on one or two major projects.

  • TehUndeadHorror

    Posted Dec 15, 2008 4:54 pm PT

    Is it just me or do all their games seem a bit too alike? No offence I think they're brilliant but I've just noticed most their games don't really offer anything revolutionary save for the story of course.

    I just really do hope this isn't just an updated Neverwinter Nights with flashy graphics and epileptic spells.

  • Taskmaster

    Posted Dec 15, 2008 11:17 am PT

    Hey bennae66, most new TVs (which your 50" sounds like) have a computer option for DVI. I know my 61" DLP does although the kids hog to so I have to stick with my widescreen monitor.

  • bennae66

    Posted Dec 14, 2008 9:10 pm PT

    bioware and bethesda get my vote regardless of platform, almost every time

  • bennae66

    Posted Dec 14, 2008 9:08 pm PT

    wow everyones really phobic of 'xbox syndrome' in here. do you people really think the 'power of the xbox' simplifies the game, or the programmers make a different type of game? i will let you in on a secret: the programmers make the games! (gasp!) i know its hard to believe but its true. mass effect was one of the greatest games i ever played. so was oblivion, so was fallout. neverwinter 2 was good, but i need something 'less dumbed down' than 'point and click' thankyou. (before im labelled an xbox lover; you shou;ld know i own a top end laptop, ps3, wii and 360 so this is not stemmed from bias) i thought spore was a little basic. i cant get that game on a console, and i dont reallyu care. i hope dragon age is a 'meaty' game, and if it is, and it launches on multiple platforms, i will be reclining on my couch, admiring my 50" screen as opposed to a monitor at a desk. if it only comes out for pc, then i will have to put up with a 'dumbed down' sized screen and a sore back. now that i have upset many people no doubt, let the hatemail begin!

  • fluffebunnie

    Posted Dec 13, 2008 9:07 am PT

    Thank god for this game. There is a serious drought in good RPGs lately. Tactical combat with pausing is a gem in todays FPSRPG world.

  • fightingfish18

    Posted Dec 12, 2008 11:36 pm PT

    maybe after this, we could get a pc dnd game based on 4.0 rules. preferably not in a forgotten realms setting though cause the spellplauge ruined everything stupid warforged...

  • world69star69

    Posted Dec 12, 2008 2:20 pm PT

    Nice!!! I can't wait for this game!!! Finally Bioware getting back to it's roots. Let's hope this game isn't dumbed down for the xbox crowd, as this was originally a pc only game, I hope they make it for pc first and port it to the consoles later like the witcher did. Doing that means the pc game gets to use the pc to its full advantage and complexity. We don't need another dues ex 2 on our hands!(my example of a good series getting dumbed down for xbox!) If the game is good I will be picking this up for both pc and ps3!

  • tudyniuz

    Posted Dec 12, 2008 1:42 pm PT

    it looks splendid

  • ldonyo

    Posted Dec 12, 2008 7:42 am PT

    As long as there is a pause option for combat, I'll be all over this title. 30+ years of turn-based gaming is hard to overcome. ;-)

  • bishopphoto

    Posted Dec 11, 2008 8:46 am PT

    @ madabada

    I have Fallout 3 in the Mail today. I hope I can enjoy it as much as you did.

    @ everyone else, BioWare is solid, this game will definitely be at least a 7.5/8 ranking here on Gamespot.

  • madabada

    Posted Dec 11, 2008 8:07 am PT

    @humorguy
    I'm not sure if you played fallout 3 then, because i was able to clock about 70 hours into one of the DEEPEST games i've played since NW or BG, but to each their own....i guess.

  • bodeen80

    Posted Dec 8, 2008 1:30 pm PT

    I'm very excited about this game. BG2 is one of my favorite games of all time. My only real concern is the graphics. The last two NWN releases have been very poor visually. Hopefully they take some lessons from Blizzard and give us great design with little system requirements....oh yeah it'd be nice to swim and jump as well.

  • Humorguy_basic

    Posted Dec 6, 2008 11:12 am PT

    Why no games like this in Sci-Fi, Drama, Thriller, Japanese Fantasy, etc. As soon as Bioware move way from AD&D type fantasy they go more action-adventure. You couldn't call Mass Effect or Jade Empire deep RPG's like BG or DA, so please, more genres in deep RPG's. Even Fallout 3 only got halfway there.

  • partytimekegs posted Dec 5, 2008 2:38 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    partytimekegs

    Posted Dec 5, 2008 2:38 pm PT (hide)

    No multiplayer. *Sigh*

  • xsa

    Posted Dec 5, 2008 8:55 am PT

    @billg4
    You're quite wrong there, the emphasis on evil characters are clearly stated as you basically can't play an evil character in baldurs gate 1 & 2, there are no evil choices for completing quests in the same sense there are good/neutral ways, which do bother people like me who tend to play through games more then once, wanting to explore more options in the gameworld.

    Also, since BioWare games have pretty much never been about "saving the world" but rather uncovering the truth about some grand scheme that can be twisted with words into seeming good aswell as bad, all the more reason a character of any alignment should be able to effectively progress, but differently, through the gameworld following the alignment he follows, sure there are some occassions when you can be both, but the reputation system effectively killed any sort of viability to be excessively evil in the way it was implemented.

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