Dragon Age Central

The first part of 2 camcorder recordings of the gameplay demo seen at PAX this year. There are early main plot and side-quest spoilers, but nothing too significant. It features the first video footage of Morrigan. Transcript follows.

[king cailan] We’re not even sure this is a true Blight. There were plenty of darkspawn but, alas, we’ve seen no sign of an archdeamon.

[duncan] Disappointed your majesty?

[king cailan] I’d hope for a war like in the tales. Yet a King riding with the fleet with Grey Wardens against a tainted God… but I suppose this will have to do. I must go before Loghain sends out a search party. Farewell, Grey Wardens.

[prisoner] I’m a deserter, or so they think. But there’s no arguing with [...?...]. Army’s are funny that way.

[player makes a choice]

[prisoner] I wasn’t a deserter, but when you catch someone sneaking around in the middle of the night, what else are you going to think? Does it matter? All I want is a bit of food and water.

[player makes a choice]

[prisoner] Just ask my guard for his. He’s still got some dinner. I saw him put it in his camp.

[presenter] So, instead of electing to murder him on the spot, we’re going to try to see if we can find him some food, starting with the guard here.

[guard] Lucky tart. You Grey Wardens get to ride with the King while I’m left with the drudgery of guarding this deserter. They should have just hanged him; put his head on a pike as an example.

[player makes a choice]

[guard] I don’t expect it was an enlightening conversation.

[player makes a choice]

[guard] Did you now? Since nobody sends me nothing to feed him with, the only way you’ll get that is if I give him mine.

[player makes a choice]

[guard] Alright, alright. I guess the poor fellow could stand to have one meal before he’s hanged. Though I don’t know why you’d care. I had nothing to do with it though – if anyone asks why he’s burping, I’m going to say it was you. Just so you know.

[presenter] So, I’m also playing a character with a high persuade skill, I’ve convinced the guard the prisoner some food.

[prisoner] Oh? You’ve brought me some food then? I’m so hungry I could faint dead away.

[player makes a choice]

[prisoner] Much obliged. You’re a kind soul, you are. May Andraste herself rain blessings upon you.

[presenter] There you go. You did a very good deed, you gave him some food; feel good about ourselves. Did you notice something that was missing? ⌊he refers to the alternate course of events seen in this demo⌉ Didn’t find out about the key, didn’t know that he had it on him, didn’t get any of the stuff that might have been in that treasure chest. You make a lot of moral choices in ‘Dragon Age: Origins’, sometimes they don’t pay off. Just because you’re the good guy, or just because you’re the bad guy, maybe it doesn’t pay off in the end. So, you just have to make those choices.

It’s real-time, however you can pause, you can zoom out for a more tactical view - you should recognise this from playing a bit of Baldurs Gate. Check out what the enemy is doing. You can cast spells, use your talents, issue commands. You can run the whole fight from here, or you can zoom in, pop into the other party member, so you’re always in the thick of battle, make use of talents. Speaking of talents, let’s use one of the Warrior talents, that’s our character class, called ‘Berserk’: makes us very strong at the cost of stamina.

So the Hurlocks are coming now. I wanna show off another one of the Warrior talents called ‘Shield Bash’. If done correctly and it’s not resisted, it will actually knock an opponent to the floor. We can follow that up with something called ‘Assault’, which is four quick strikes. There’s a Hurlock Alpha there, much tougher opponent, you can see he’s using his own talents... felled by an arrow! Switch over to one of our party members there to continue; I think we’ll have to get everyone involved in close quarters combat, so I’m going to switch to Jory there, who’s using the bow, and switch out for sword & shield... there we go. Now we’re going to bring the combat to them. Looks like we’ve got two more archers to deal with - you see up in the mini-map here, help to sort things out... one more archer, we’ll make short work of him. So if there’s any healing to do, the mage can do that... oh, we don’t have a mage, that’s right.

Ok, we’re going to keep going, we’re going to show you a character who hasn’t been seen before as well, her name is Morrigan. Sort of a mysterious character, there’s been a bit of speculation about what she is. This is actually the first time that you will meet her in the game.

[morrigan] Well well, what have we here? Are you a vulture, I wonder, a scavenger poking amongst the corpses for bones that are long since cleaned. Or merely an intruder, come into this Dark Spawn [...?...] easy prey.

[presenter] So we’re not going to talk too much about her today. Just wanted to show her off a little bit. Actually going to jump ahead a little bit further. But if you look [... video cuts out]

‘Musashi’ from the yellow-menace website posted this video taken at GenCon on his camcorder. It features a demo of the game, showing off certain aspects of gameplay. It contains minor sidequest and early main-plot spoilers.

This is the second part of a set of three videos, the first is here and the last is here. Transcript follows.

[the demo starts with the side quest involving a prisoner, chosen because of its simplicity and speed of resolution. the player faces a man trapped in a cage.]

[prisoner] But it’s come back into my possession
[player makes a choice]
[prisoner] Yeah, well, do you want the key or not?

[presenter] ... just little bits of humour every now and then offsets the dark and gritty. But here’s a great example of choice. Now, the choice of what to do with this guy is up to you. Perhaps you’re a more noble player, you want to help this poor guy, give him a little water, or maybe you’re a little darker, a little more sinister, you’re more interested in maybe getting the key for yourself, trying to find that chest... the way you want to play is totally up to you. Anybody have preferences on which way we want to go?

[player option 1] I’ll see what I can do.
[player option 2] Ill tkat that. (kill him and take the key.)
[player option 3] Forget it. I need to go.

[audience] Kill him!

[presented] We have yet to do a demo where we do not kill him. [laughter]

[prisoner] You can’t do that! Guards!

[the player approaches the cage, drawing a small dagger, before knifing the defenceless prisoner in the gut and walking away]

[guard] What? What in Andrasteys[?] name did you do that for? Just because you’re a Grey Warden doesn’t give you the right to go and kill anyone you please. Explain yourself.

[player option 1] He lunged at me. I had to defend myself.
[player option 2] He spit on me. He got what he deserved.
[player option 3] I don’t have to explain myself to you. [chosen]

[guard] You’ll have to explain yourself to someone. Well, no skin off my teeth. When they ask me why he’s dead, that’s what I’ll tell them.

[presenter] We got a simple response in this case, the guard is almost happy the prisoner is dead. Now he can go off and have a drink or some hot food. But this is the kind of choice that can come back to haunt you later on. Although the guard’s fine with what’s happened, perhaps someone else you might encounter later in the game is going to have a few more questions for you. The decisions you make will have lasting repercussions. Now we can continue on and explore through the camp, but I’m going to have Jason jump to another area further on into the story.

By this point we’ve been exploring out here in the swamps, called the Korcari Wilds; lots of different areas for you to explore in Dragon Age, we’ve got ruins, dungeons, wastelands, cities, all the classic RPG experiences. You’ve now become a Grey Warden, you can tell he’s wearing the Dragon Age shield on his back, the Grey Wardens’. It’s the night before battle here at the King’s camp, you’re going to go talk to King Cailan and his trusted adviser Loghain to find out what role you’re going to play in the battle ahead. So Jason, move ahead and talk to the King.

[king cailan] Loghain, my descision is final. I will stand by the Grey Wardens in this assault.

[loghain] You risk too much Cailan. The dark spawn horde is too dangerous for you to be playing hero on the front lines.

[king cailan] If that’s the case, perhaps we should wait for the Orlesian forces to join us afterall.


[loghain] I must repeat my protest to your fool notion that we need the Orlesians to defend ourselves.

[king cailan] It is not a fool notion. Our arguments with the Orlesians are a thing of the past. And you will remember who is King.

[loghain] How fortunate Maric did not live to see his son ready to hand Ferelden over to those who enslaved us for a centuray.

[king cailan] Then our current forces will have to suffice, won’t they? Duncan, are your men ready for battle?

[duncan] They are, your majesty.

[king cailan] And this [the player] is the recruit I met earlier on the road? I understand congratulations are in order.

[player option 1] Thank you your Majesty. [chosen]
[player option 2] I didn’t have a choice, really.
[player option 3] I don’t feel that special.

[king cailan] Every Grey Warden is needed now. You should be honoured to join their ranks.

[loghain] Your fascination with glory and legends will be your undoing, Cailan. We must attend to reality.

[king cailan] Fine, speak your strategy. The Grey Wardens and I draw the dark spawn into charging our lines, then?

[loghain] You [the player] will alert the tower to light the beacon signaling my men to charge from...

[king cailan] To fight the dark spawn. I remember. This [pointing to a map on a table] is the tower of Ishal in the ruins, yes? Well who shall light this beacon?

[loghain] I have a few men stationed there; it’s not a dangerous task, but it is vital.

[king cailan] Then we should send our best. Send Alistair, the new Grey Warden, to make sure it’s done.

[player makes a choice]

[loghain] You rely on these Grey Wardens too much. Is that truly wise?

[king cailan] Enough of your conspiracy theories Loghain. Grey wardens battle the Blight no matter where they’re from.

[duncan] Your majesty, you should consider the possibility of the Arch Demon appearing.

[loghain] There have been no signs of any dragons in the Wilds.

[king cailan] Isn’t that what your men are here for Duncan?

[duncan] I... Yes, your majesty.

[mage] Your majesty, the tower and its beacon are unnecessary. The circle of magi...

[priestess] We will not trust any lives to your spells, mage. Save them for the dark spawn.

[loghain] Enough, this plan will suffice. The Grey Wardens will light the beacon.

[king cailan] Thank you Loghain. I cannot wait for that glorious moment. The Grey Wardens battle beside the King of Ferelden to battle the tide of evil.

[loghain] Yes, Cailan. A glorious moment for us all.

[presenter] So now we know our role in the battle. We have to reach the tower of Ishal, we’re going to light the signal fire so Loghain knows to sweep in and defeat the dark spawn. We have our two party

members with us: we have Alistair a talented Grey Warden - well equipped to help us get through any locked doors we might encounter. Again the party interaction, totally up to you who you’re going to take. You can have a [?] party of people you’re going to encounter in the game, some will want to come with you, some may not depending on the choices you make throughout the gameplay. But now we’ve got our party, we’re going to go ahead and join the battle of Ostegar.

[as the player crosses a certain trigger point, a cutscene plays]

[duncan] The plan will work, your majesty.

[king cailan] Of course it will, the Blight ends here.

[cut scene continues: the blight rush the king’s camp]

[king cailan] Archers! ... Hounds! ... For Ferelden!

[presenter] There we go, the battle has begun, remember our mission was to reach the tower of Ishal, light the signal fires for Loghain. [?] through the camp, trying to avoid all the dangers along the way. [...?...] there certainly going to be some large combat you’ll be taking part of Dragon Age: Origins, small party encounters right up to massive epic battles. [...?...] we’d better keep moving.

[guard] You’re Grey Wardens are you? The tower, it’s been taken.

[alistair] What are you talking about man, taken how?

[guard] The dark spawn came up through the lower chambers and they’re everywhere. Most of my men are dead.

[alistair] Then we have to get to the beacon and light it ourselves.

[player makes a choice]

[guard] Right, let’s hurry.

[presenter] So our mission has just become a little harder. We don’t just have to reach the tower, now the tower has been taken by the dark spawn and we have to fight them off. Now we had a party of two people with us. To give us a little extra [?] we can go ahead and add the tower guard here to the party.

Sometimes you get party members [...?...] you can have a lasting impression, you might be able to do a romance with them, or [...?...] story detail. Other times you’re gonna pick up guys like the tower guard, probably a little less important - you can tell by the lack of a first name. But we’re going to go ahead, continue on with the battle... Reach the tower.

[brief cut scene plays of a fierce dark spawn member]

We got a bunch of dark spawn here. So Jason’s going to pause the game here. Now the way you play Dragon Age: Origins is totally going to be up to you. Some players are going to want to pull up your sword, hunt them down and start swinging, that’s fine. Personally that’s the way I play a game. Other people are going to want to take a more tactical approach to the game, as Jason has done: pause the game, pull the camera out, put it in tactical view, rotate it around, so he knows exactly what he’s going to want to do.

The choice is up to you. Now you can also just control the main character like I do, other people are going to want to take a more direct hands-on, you can also individually control the party members should you so choose. The choice is up to you. In this case Jason’s going to focus on the main PC, he’s a melee fighter-based character. So we’re going to go ahead and use our sword and shield in battle, and we’re going to start off with some of the talents and abilities of the player. The first one we’re going to go through is ‘Berserk’. Berserk allows you to do more damage in combat, however it comes at a cost of stamina. All the choices you make in Dragon Age: Origins you’re going to have little desicions for you. Do a little more damage but get tired easier. The choice is up to you. Jason’s activating ‘Berserk’. The party has a good AI system [the party members run out in front and start attacking whilst the pc activates his talent], they already know [...?...] to attack the enemy. We’ve got a group of Genlocks here. Genlocks are sort of smallish foot soldies with the dark spawn. Also got a Hurlock here, Hurlocks are a little tougher, but fortunately there’s four of us here in battle. Next we’re going to go up the rise, looks like we’ve got another Hurlock, it’s going to be a lot tought up here, so what Jason’s going to do here, he’s going to start off with a ‘Shield Bash’. Shield Bash is exactly what it sounds like - attack with the shield to try and stun the opponent or knock him down. Then he’s going to follow it up with ‘Assualt’. Assault is a series of [?] fast attacks, doing a lot of damage. [...?...]

Here we are now at the base of the tower or Ishal. Before we go inside, we’re going to change things up a little for you. We’ve been playing a melee class human fighter, we’re going to show off another key feature in Dragon Age: Origins, and that’s magic. [load game screen comes up, the interface looking like an open book] Magic is a key part of a good role-playing game, a fantasy game; we’re going to go ahead and change to a character with a different origin story: instead of a human male we’re going to play an elven female. [loading screen is a picture of a genlock] Here’s a quick close-up of a genlock for you, one of the dark spawn. Magic is extremely powerful and a little mistrusted in the world of Dragon Age: Origins. Mages have a lot of power and have to be controlled very tightly. [party is inside the tower, by the entrance as the camera moves around them] There she is in the front row, that’s Cathrielda, our elven mage. We also have three party members with us still from before in the battle outside, that won’t be able to be [?] off until after the battle is over. We’re going to move into the room with Enetio[?] first, always send a fighter in first, just in case. Here comes some barricades set up, it looks like it’s going to be a trap. We also have a powerful magic user called a genlock up ahead who’s cast a magic spell called ‘Grease’; slowed our movement rate and trapped us a little bit. He’s also cast off a fireball. One of the key features of magic in Dragon Age: Origins is magic interacts with each other. Now watch what happens when fire meets grease. [the grease catches fire and the fighter is knocked back and burns, then the player takes control of the mage and moves her into the room] [...?...] here has a spell called ‘Blizzard’, a [?] of ice, snow and cold making a blizzard to put out the fire. Some combinations are going to be very obvious to you, others you’ll have to discover as you play the game. Even without direct control the party’s intelligent enough to continue to [?], attacking [...?...]. There’s the Emissary waiting by the [?], he’s a pretty powerful magic user and has managed to freeze Alistair twice. [...?...] This battle’s usually very tough, we’ve run this demo a number of times and the Emissary is a powerful magic user... [the enemy mage is stunned and two party members get the advantage]... but we managed to defeat him.

Now you can see that now that the initial combat is over, the party members that have fallen in battle, they’re not actually dead, they’re just wounded to the point of not being able to assist. Once the battle is over they will come back and they will be less effective until you’re able to heal them. Unless the entire party dies, if the entire party dies you’re loading saved games. Now that everyone’s healed up, we’re going to the next great system of any true RPG, and that’s looting corpses. Everybody likes a little extra treasure, a little extra gold, a little extra magical item. [loot/inventory screen is list-based and looks like an open book] [...?...] we’re going to go ahead and equipe those, put them on Alistair, make him tougher for the battles up ahead. [...?...] Before we go to the next area, that last area was a light tough, we’ll get Jason this time to buff the entire party by cast off a spell called ‘Flaming Weapons’. This spell - the party is [...?...] - but it’s going to add fire damage to our weapons in the next area. Now that the party’s buffed up we can head through the door and see what’s on the other side.

Ok [...?...] Hurlocks in here, so what Jason’s going to do is move to a safe point so the mage isn’t in the middle of everything [a melee fight in the center of the room], he’s going to try and freeze some of the Hurlocks in place with Paralysis. And here’s another powerful spell called ‘Flame Blast’, which essentially turns your staff into a massive flame thrower... getting ready to cast the spell... there it goes [two enemies in the line of fire drop dead]. Once again, magic very powerful. If you’re not pointing your staff in the right direction, you’re going to be roasting your own party. That’s something you need to be aware of whilst you’re playing the game. So the Hulocks are done for this room, you can see some environments of the interior inside the tower. Now do we have any Neverwinter Nights players here? You may notice something we didn’t include in Neverwinter Nights: we’ve got ceilings in Dragon Age: Origins. [laughter] We’re going to continue on, no time for ceilings, move to the next room.

This room looks empty, it’s obviously the tunnel they came up into the tower through. Let’s move on into the next area. [...?...] in this room we’ve the party taking on one really close, but we can go ahead and take them out at range with the same spell they used against us when we arrived. Now Jason’s going to cast Grease, you can position the [?] for most effect, it’s your choice. She’s going to light it with a fireball. [the distant enemies cought in the two spells quickly escape the conflagration and rush to the party to engage them in melee] The party members are smart enough not to run into the fire, the tower guard as I said, the three levels of NPCs, [...?...] but really, if you really wanted to, you could send your party in to take the damage, relying on the healing magics of your caster. Totally up to you. Well, we’ve managed to defeat the Genlocks here in the lower area, we have to [...?...] through this door. I’m hearing some unsettling noises on the other side of this door. Maybe at this point, if this mission wasn’t so vital, I might just back off. Might say to myself, go get some armour, maybe I’ll go do a romance. I’ll go do one of my other subquests or something. In this case the mission’s too vital [video cuts off short]