14 DAY TRIAL // Just as the developers of Dragon Age 2 deliver one reassuring video in order to show fans of the first game in the series that BioWare is still serious about making combat in the game important and option filled they also offer statements that seem to indicate that they are dropping the overall difficulty level to make it more accessible.
Mike Laidlaw, who is the designer leading the development process for Dragon Age 2, has told The Escapist, when talking about the difficulty levels, “Was the default setting, especially on PC, too hard? Yeah. 'Normal' felt more like 'Hard' to me.”
He then went on to suggest that in Dragon Age 2 players will need to tweak the difficulty level even higher if they are looking to get the same experience they got on hard in the first video game.
I played through Origins two times up until the end and I could get another run through under my belt before the sequel is upon us, and if anything I found that the game became too easy after the first third, with the only three battles that really bothered me being the one against the Broodmother, the optional High Dragon near the Urn of Andraste and the zombie battle in Redcliffe (only if done early in the game).
Still BioWare aims to make combat more interesting by making sure that its easier to get through simple mobs, saving time for the player, while also introducing a number of special enemies, like assassins and very powerful mages that need more tactical thought to be defeated.
Dragon Age 2 will have wider ambitions than those of Origins, telling a story that spans ten years and will have a wider impact upon the game world.
Dragon Age 2 is planned for a March 8, 2011 launch date on the PC, the Xbox 360 from Microsoft and the PlayStation 3 from Sony.