14 DAY TRIAL // BioWare's Greg Zeschuk recently defended the controversial decisions his company took with Dragon Age II, changing the combat system and restricting the player character's race to human, with dwarfs or elves no longer available. Furthermore, in the style of Mass Effect, he or she will have a name, in this case Hawke.
In an interview with VG247, Zeschuk explained why so many changes were made in the sequel to the highly successful Dragon Age: Origins. “With all our games, we don’t always want to create a true sequel in the sense that it’s more of the same. (...) We decided to sort of change and create a different type of game at least on the surface. (...) If you’ll remember with Dragon Age 1, we had the Marilyn Manson trailer and everyone freaked out and we said, ‘Don’t worry: we’re just showing you a different perspective.’ Over time, I think people will kind of understand what we’re doing and probably really like it,” he said.
Furthermore, he commented that this time around all versions of Dragon Age II will cater to the strengths of the platform they are released on. Zeschuk said that, “in Dragon Age 2 we’ve had the opportunity to work from a final platform and kind of design the gameplay to really cater for them. Again, there’ll be differences between the PC version and the console versions, by the simple nature of the input system and the experience. I think when people start seeing it in action they’re going to be really impressed with how it looks on all platforms.”
This comes to quell the worries expressed by many PC gamers who enjoyed the old school approach of Dragon Age: Origins regarding the structure of the narrative and the combat system. Origins brought enough new elements to the mix to keep things fresh, without spoiling the strategic gameplay that BioWare was well known before Neverwinter Nights.