14 DAY TRIAL // Dragon Age II is set to receive its first piece of proper downloadable content next week, in the form of the Legacy expansion, which adds a whole new quest line for the main character, Hawke, alongside new environments, better enemies and, at least according to BioWare, addresses some of the concerns expressed by fans.
Dragon Age II was a solid game, managing to earn rave reviews from critics and selling many millions of copies. Sadly, it wasn't without faults, as many fans that enjoyed its predecessor, Dragon Age: Origins, weren't thrilled with the same old environments or the more streamlined combat system.
Now, with the release of Legacy, BioWare, the developer, wants to bring back some of the players that abandoned the game, and show that quite a few of their concerns were addressed by the new quests and improved gameplay.
“We really had to go back to the storyboard after the launch of Dragon Age II, to take in the feedback and figure out, how do make our content better?” said Dragon Age senior producer Fernando Melo to Rock, Paper, Shotgun, who emphasized that while the amount of changes brought by the DLC isn't that great, "hopefully, people see this not as everything we’re doing [to respond to feedback], but rather as a first step toward addressing some of their points."
Legacy sees the protagonist, Hawke, explore the mysterious past of his (or her) father, Malcolm, which brings him to some all-new environments, including a Grey Warden prison or into a new section of the Deep Roads.
These levels are going to be much trickier to navigate, while enemies, which have seen some serious improvements, are going to use the land to their advantage, prompting players to approach battles in a more strategic way, according to Melo.
The main quest line, according to the producer, lasts around three hours, but there are plenty of side quests and exploration that can be done by players, which bring the total to around five hours of new things to do.
In the end, while Legacy won't make or break the overall experiences of Dragon Age II, the developer is certain that many people will be pleased with it, not just those who already enjoyed the regular title.
“It’s not really a make-or-break thing. It’s our privilege to be able to serve additional content to the fans. So long as they want it, we will make more content for them. There are a lot of people who enjoyed DA2 and they’re looking for more content, and that is the primary audience for this. But I’m hoping that we can also win back a lot of people that were perhaps expecting something else with DA2 and are willing to give it a chance."
"I think they’ll see a lot of improvement in here already, and hopefully we can continue to show them that we’re on the right course and we are listening to them and making those changes."
The Legacy DLC for Dragon Age II will arrive on July 26 for the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, costing $9.99 or 800 BioWare or Microsoft Points, depending on the platform.