Dragon Age: Single Post View

The fourth and final direct feed (high quality) video of the gameplay demo given at the Games Convention in Leipzig. Narrated by Dan Tudge [dt]. It has mostly been seen previously in low-quality cam-corder videos, but this is the first time we can very clearly see the inventory system, and what happens immediately after the Ogre in the tower of Ishal is killed. Transcript follows.

[dt] Welcome to episode 4 of the demo for ‘Dragon Age: Origins’: the Tower of Ishal. Now before we head into the tower, we’re going to actually swap out to a hero with a different origin. This one, an elven mage, is going to have a little more firepower. So we’re now in the tower of Ishal, and you can see here’s our elven mage. We still have the rest of our original party, you can see the blood and gore is still on them from the previous battles - this stays with you. By the looks of these barricades up ahead we may be in for a bit of a trap, but we’re going to head in anyway.

You can see our party’s been caught in grease. And that emissary up there, well he’s launched a fireball. That fireball’s lit the grease on fire. Now in ‘Dragon Age: Origins’, spells can interact with each other. So in that vein, we’re going to use our mage, cast ‘Blizzard’, and hopefully put this fire out. So while we were putting out this fire with Blizzard, our advanced party tactics sent our warriors up here and started taking out these darkspawn. At any time you can move from character to character in your party. You can zoom out to tactical where you can issue commands, spells, special abilities... you can stay in this view, just like Baludur’s Gate, or you can zoom right back into the action. Now that pause & play really allows you to get up close and get a great shot of the action.

[new spell descriptions seen:]
Tempest
Cost: 60
The caster creates an intense electrical storm that drains the life and mana/stamina of creatures within it.

Flaming Weapons
Cost: 20
Upkeep: 10
When activated, the primary weapon equipped by each party member is engulfed in flames, dealing additional damage with each hit.

Glyph Of Paralysis
Cost: 20
The caster places a glyph on the ground which, when entered, explodes and paralyses the target for a short time.

Flame Blast
Cost: 15
A cone of fire shoots out from the caster’s hands, setting all creatures within the cone on fire.

[with the help of tempest and the warriors, the emissary is defeated]

[dt] Before we push on forward, we’re actually going to loot this emissary. He’s probably got a few items we could use. [items are dragged from a list of items on the corpse to a list of items held by the whole party; there is a 1000 item limit] We’ll certainly grab this Sword of Ogre Strength and this Flamescale Armor; I think they’re going to help us out later.

Now before we head through this door, we’re going to use a buff on our entire party this time. It’s called ‘Flaming Weapons’, and it’s going to add fire damage to all our weapons. We’re going to use the warrior to go through the door first. Now this room’s full of Hurlocks. These guys are a little more difficult. So we’re going to use a different tactic. This time we’re going to use ‘Glyph of Paralysis’, and hopefully we’ll freeze up one of these Hurlocks. Now we’re going to hit ‘em with ‘Flame Blast’. This is a devastating spell, so you’re going to have to be very very careful where you point it. Now clearly in this encounter the flaming weapons really helped out.

You can see our artists have taken a lot of effort in making sure that these environments are absolutely stunning. They’re very very proud of their work. Now that tower guard mentioned that the darkspawn may be coming up from the lower chambers; clearly this hole, it’s one of their entry points. Now earlier we mentioned that spells in ‘Dragon Age: Origins’ can interact with each other. We saw the emissary light the grease on fire with a fireball. We’re going to try the same thing; we’re going to cast grease, and then light it on fire. And what we’re really talking about are spell combos. In ‘Dragon Age: Origins’, you can use spells together to create new devastating effects. Many of these will be documented, but a lot, you’re going to have to experiment with, and find out for yourself. Not sure if I like the sound of what’s behind that door, but we got a beacon to light, so let’s push on forward.

[mini ogre-meeting cutscene plays]

This is one of our more devastating creatures: the Ogre. Creatures like this are going to come with all their own unique abilities: Ogre hurl, pound... we’ve got Ogre grab (this is my particular favourite) - this is where he literally grabs a member of your party and pounds them. We’re going to have to throw everything we’ve got at this Ogre just to take him down. These encounters are going to be intense. They’re going to take every talent, every spell, every tactic you’ve learned.

[the ogre defeats all but one of the party members, then uses grab on him... then alistair is released and manages to defeat the ogre with a finishing move, with just a few percent health left]

Dark, heroic fantasy people, we don’t pull any punches here. Now we’ve got a beacon to light. Let’s see what happens.

[cut scene plays of loghain seeing the beacon, then another ogre grabbing king cailan before a fade to black]

[dt] So today you saw scalable combat, where you are always the hero. And through the story of the battle of Ostagar, you saw the decisions you made changed the way you perceived the world, and the way the world perceives you. And you saw Bioware’s return to it’s roots, with ‘Dragon Age: Origins’.

Variants

• sequence_04_620x350.flv
  53.8MB 620x348 7m54s vp6f (smaller version)