BioWare spills Dragon Age details

By Robert Purchese Published 14 July, 2008

Shows first screens and videos.

BioWare has revealed new details of its upcoming role-playing game Dragon Age: Origins.

A release window has been officially confirmed as early next year, and the game will ship exclusively on PC.

Lots is being made of its dark fantasy setting, which promises to be mature and littered with "credible" characters and voice acting. It is expected to be a "gritty" and "emotionally intense" epic.

Specifically we're told to expect a party-based system that scales from small encounters up to "hordes" of baddies and "massive creatures".

Players will be able to combine spells to create new effects, and there will be spells, skills and talents to customise characters with. Also, lots of magical loot.

"Dragon Age: Origins is a dark heroic fantasy that doesn't pull any punches. Our fans are in for the most emotionally intense gaming experience we've ever created, and we hope to surprise them with just how dark and gritty it gets," said BioWare boss Ray Muzyka.

Look out for our thoughts on Dragon Age from E3 later this week.

Until then, the first Dragon Age screenshots can be found on IGN and the first video on GameTrailers.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (35) Latest comment 4 years ago

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  • BlackKraken #1 4 years ago

    That looks awful... I was looking forward to this game, but now ive seen the video and the screenshots. Very disappointing neverwinter nights clone.

  • Kazzahdrane #2 4 years ago

    The media released so far is pretty unimaginative and disappointing, but I have faith that Bioware will ensure the narrative and character development elevates the game above the average fantasy RPG.

    And the Sonic RPG on DS will be great too! (hopefully)

  • Phattso #3 4 years ago

    "Spills"?! Are you sure? Mildly disappointing and entirely meh-worthy trickle at the very best. :)

    I'm a massive Baldur's Gate fan, but thus far I'm filled only with a mild dread that I've been waiting for the game for all these years and it's going to be arse. BioWare need to get some gameplay footage/shots out there ASAP, and some decent info on the classes and such like. For those looking forward to the game, what they've released is doing more harm than good. And for those who might be tempted, it looks far too generic for them to care. :(

  • MrWonderstuff #4 4 years ago

    Only on PC? Lordy that's disappointing. I've got a pc but its getting creaky.

  • timberwolf #5 4 years ago

    stop expecting the world and expect what is basically baldur's gate 3. that's good enough... after deus ex and system shock being slaughtered who wants radical new ideas anyway.

  • Phattso #6 4 years ago

    Who's expecting the world? Nothing they've shown bears any resemblance to the nitty-gritty and beautifully detailed world of Baldur's Gate 1 and 2. Not even close. It's trite fantasy bollocks, and not what most were expecting.

    I'd kill for BG3. And if they kept it in 2D my heart would leap. :) But if this turns out to be a Neverwinter Nights style affair, where the 3D rendering and interface kill any real sense of presence in the world and turn it into a genetic RPG then count me out.

  • hoster #7 4 years ago

    uh? I thought that vid looked pretty decent: maybe I'm just easily pleased :p

  • slivir #8 4 years ago

    It's good to see many games like this are maturing with the gaming audience nowadays.

  • Dizzy #9 4 years ago

    Indeed... why is it every time a game comes out people go "that looks aweful111!!!!".

    You know.. fuck off. If the gameplay is like BG I DO NOT GIVE A SHIT!

  • Wickerman #10 4 years ago

    @Phattso - just out of curiosity, did you play NWN2 - Mask of the Betrayer? Because, IMO at least, that was as close to the Baldurs Gate games in terms of atmosphere, storyline and characterisation as I've seen since... well, the Baldurs Gate games!

    While I too would love the gorgeous pre rendered 2D backgrounds and isometric camera of the Infinity Engine, I think those days are well and truly behind us!

  • digiwalsh #11 4 years ago

    Bleh. just looks like time wasted that could be spent on ME 2. or KOTOR 3.

  • space_ace #12 4 years ago

    looks like "medieval rpg construction set" aka nwn... meh :-|

  • Bertie Verified Senior Staff Writer, Eurogamer.net #13 4 years ago

    Very underwhelmed so far. Hopefully Oli will see another side to it at E3.

  • Phattso #14 4 years ago

    @Wickerman: no, I never played the NWN2 expansion. I picked it up off the shelf so many times, but the memories of the cookie-cutter boring original were still too fresh in my mind. I've heard good things about it, but I fear I'd be too prejudiced. Any series that takes a sequel and an expansion pack before it gets good is usually one that I'd sidestep. ;)

    I'm a saddo, anyway, I still replay BG2 every few years with a different class each time. :)

  • Phattso #15 4 years ago

    @Dizzy: indeed! And if they'd just show us some footage of it playing like the BG I know and love, I'll stop complaining. Promise! :)

  • MuppetThumper #16 4 years ago

    looks shite.

    generic generic GENERIC

  • Evolution #17 4 years ago

    Reminded me of Lord of the Rings, in a bad way.

    @Phattso: NWN 2 and expansion were made by Obsidian, not Bioware. Although the main game wasn't fantastic, the expansion was much more focused and much more interesting.

  • Wickerman #18 4 years ago

    @Phattso - yeah, I can understand that. I think it was only the fact that I'm a whore for anything Bioware and/or D&D related that even got me to play NWN2 after the snorefest that was NWN and its assorted bastard children/expansion packs (none of which I could even bring myself to complete).

    It really, really is worth a play though if you ever find it knocking around for cheap. One of the plot related gameplay additions has the potential to have you tearing your hair out supposedly, but I never found it to get in the way.

    Oh, and while we are on the subject of the Baldurs Gate games - IGN UI screenshot. That screenshot alone is enough for me to forget the blandness of the Dragon Age trailer!

  • penhalion #19 4 years ago

    Sadly the description looks nothing like the footage they've shown so far. The characters really don't look good at all. This is especially worrying given that facial animations from most FPS seems to be 10 times better than the stuff we've seen. This has been in production for a few years now and clearly standards have risen during that time.

  • Phattso #20 4 years ago

    @Evolution: Indeed. Although they managed to bork KotOR2 so I wasn't in the mood to trust them either. ;)

    @Wickerman: Yeah, that one screenshot is the saving grace of the whole bunch. I really really don't know why they're opting to put the focus on some random, generic, cutscene rot. Show us the Infinity-engine viewpoint. Clickety-clickety-click. Spellbar. Bit o' combat. Some NPC conversation...

    ...that'd be enough to whip me into a frenzy!

    If they could somehow crowbar in a Minsc/Boo cross-property cameo so much the better. ;)

  • WinterSnowblind #21 4 years ago

    I am excited about the game, if nothing else I'm sure the core gameplay will be great and the construction set will at least allow someone to do something good with the game. But the trailer was very underwhelming, hopefully they show some more at e3 to prove us wrong, after all it is Bioware, I think they've earned the benefit of the doubt for the moment.

  • Mudo #22 4 years ago

    This looks like it could go either way. I'll wait for a decent preview or a proper gameplay video with UI et al before judging

  • Vasenor #23 4 years ago

    *glee*

  • JediMasterMalik #24 4 years ago

    I was very excited about this from previews and stuff last year, but my hype has gone seriously down. They're going to have to show a lot more for me to be excited again.

  • peak_performance #25 4 years ago

    Combining spells and the UI looks and sounds decent enough, but all this talk about "emotionally intense" sounds like typical marketing wad. The two teasers are about as generic as they come on top of that.

    I'm hoping that Bioware will be able to _finally_ produce an interesting RPG again, in my opinion everything since BG2 has been going downhill, with even more loads of really bad combat filling in for interesting characters and story. Bioware gets of way too easy for skipping on game play.

  • koji_m #26 4 years ago

    generic RPG?
    tweaked aurora engine?
    Bioware?

    WHERE DO I SIGN!

  • peak_performance #27 4 years ago

    Neverwinter Nights?

  • Carrybagma #28 4 years ago

    Bugger this. Where's KOTOR III? That's what everyone wants to know, right?

  • hiddenranbir #29 4 years ago

    Most intense experience? Let me guess one of the plot twists...I get betrayed by a friend or something.
    Oh! I have amnesia and I have to discover my past and it turns out to be quite fantastic. I was someone special all along! How intensely predictable.

    I hope Bioware manage to surprise me.
    Edited by 1 at 14/07/08 @ 17:29

  • Windsong #30 4 years ago

    Um..people. I don't know if you guys are forgetting, but Bioware stated on the forums recently that Dragon Age will have the same DRM (SecuROM) that Mass Effect for PC had.

    Enjoy your limited installs.

    (unless you opt to acquire the game by nefarious means..)

  • Lin #31 4 years ago

    I love the way that Bioware decides they don't need licenses anymore, and then go create generic third rate clones of Star Wars and The Forgotten Realms for Mass Effect and Dragon Age.

    Really what was the point? just the name "Dragon Age" is mindless generic fantasy pluff.

  • hiddenranbir #32 4 years ago

    Yes it is Lin on the fantasy aspect but I was glad that I finally had a scifi rpg that wasn't the one about laserswords. Although given the biotics the game had, it was a lightsword away from being SW.

  • Nithron #33 4 years ago

    Ugh, Mass Effect's sci fi setting was horrible. It was about as generic as you could possibly get. Evil robots! Jumpsuits for every citizen! Spaceships so clean they must be maintained by hordes of janitors... None of which you ever see! A crappy-ass "sci-fi" excuse to use magic!

    What more could you want?

    Other than, you know, some originality.

  • gmmonkey #34 4 years ago

    Bioware? Rpg? Sign me up. Couple of notes in reference to other posters, bioware didn't make kotor 2, kotor 3 is likely to be an mmorpg, and 4 of 8 screenshots at ign are 4 years old.

  • qoobah #35 4 years ago

    Mass Effect might be considered by some "generic", but then it was a mix of almost every sci-fi idea around, and a bloody good mix while at it, for me personally it was nigh spot-on. Please, do come up with a non generic but interesting at the same time idea for sci-fi setting these days, and I'll be the first to shake your hand. It was all said and done somewhere, sometime in some form. If Mass Effect was generic, then I'll take such a generic and nearly perfect blend of known ideas over too hard attempts at innovation any day.

    Dragon Age is another thing though. I just can't find anything in this tariler and screens that would interest me the way ME caught my attention. Still, it's done by Bioware, generic ideas never stopped them from making great games, so I'm holding off judgment.

    hiddenranbir, I have to agree though, they could use a tad more innovation in their screenplay departament ;)