Dragon Age: Origins Human Noble Hands-on
We've got a first glimpse inside BioWare's long-awaited fantasy RPG.
August 10, 2009 - BioWare has been saying for a while now that Dragon Age: Origins, its upcoming fantasy RPG, is a big game. That might explain why it's taken so long to develop; hard to believe, but Dragon Age was first announced more than five years ago. The game's title takes its name from the fact that there are six distinct prologues that you can choose from, and each can set up repercussions that echo throughout the rest of the game. Many RPGs will let you create different characters, but they all follow the same narrative more or less. In Dragon Age, the choice of prologue is just the first of many choices that will shape the experience.
We've been playing around with the origin stories in Dragon Age and it's kind of staggering at how complex and flexible the entire story is. The origin story you choose plays a big role, but after that there are many life and death decisions being made that affect the course of your game. It's safe to say that you could probably play the game several times and you'd have a remarkably different experience in terms of companion characters and story each time. Over the next few weeks we're going to highlight three of the origin stories, starting today with the human nobles.
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Learn more about the human nobles origin story.
If you're going to play someone in Dragon Age, you'd be hard pressed to find a better position than the human nobles. In the game's universe, the humans are the dominant species, with the dwarves sort of like helpful craftsmen and the elves little more than indentured servants to the humans. Throughout the game you'll be treated as nobility, as pretty much everyone treats you with courtesy and respect, which is a far cry from some of the other origin stories. You play as the youngest scion of a noble house; your father is an arl, which is probably the Dragon Age equivalent to an earl. You can create a male or female character, and the dialogue (all fully voiced) adjusts for whichever gender.
First, we should probably discuss character creation, since you actually need to create a human noble before you get to play one. Humans can play as warriors, mages, and rogues, though human nobles can only play as warriors and rogues. Human mages are an entirely different origins story, which means that they have a different starting point and plot. Not surprising, but the character creation system is built off of the one found in Mass Effect; you use sliders to choose and adjust facial features, such as eye height, jaw width, cheekbone height, ear size, and much more. Mass Effect fans will probably recognize many of the facial parts, such as the eyes. One nice thing is that you can adjust your character's in-game portrait; remember the old days when BioWare supplied hand-painted portraits for your characters? Now you can pose your character's face, and even adjust their facial expression. There's something cool about having a wry smirk for your portrait.
BioWare designed the rule set from scratch, and D&D veterans might need a while to adjust to the different feel of the rules. Character abilities are divided between strength, dexterity, willpower, magic, cunning, and constitution. Strength affects the amount of damage you inflict in combat, dexterity lets you dodge attacks, willpower improves your stamina (which power your skills), and magic is important mainly for mages, though it has its uses for other classes. Cunning is a bit unusual, as it's mainly for rogues, but it's important for combat tactics as well. Then there's constitution, which mainly affects your health points. Each time you level up you get three points to distribute between these abilities, which sounds like a lot but you'll quickly discover that to use some of the best gear in the game often requires a particular ability score in the 20s or even 30s.
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A throne room battle.
We won't go into the spoilery plot details too much, but it's going to be unavoidable to discuss some key plot points from this point on. The situation is basically your family's forces are marshalling for war against the darkspawn, an evil infestation that threatens the entire kingdom. The king has called his banners and everyone is busy preparing for battle. However, you, as the youngest, are tasked with staying behind while your older brother and father head off to war. This is the situation when the game starts, and you get to speak with your father and his old friend Arl Howe. The dialogue system is similar to Mass Effect's, though the interface is different. You still select from various dialogue options and then listen for the results, although one nice thing in the PC version is that you can skip through the talking and go straight to the dialogue by jamming the Esc key. This lets you blow through conversations that you've heard before, especially those that are several minutes long.
After the initial conversation you get your first character companion, your loyal warhound that you get to name yourself. Judging from his happy-go-lucky look on his face, plus the way he tears into enemies, this little guy will give Fallout 3's Dogmeat a run for his money as favorite RPG pet. He joins you just in time for your first battle, which, in classic role-playing fashion, is against a bunch of giant rats. Combat plays out in real-time, though you can pause at any time to give orders to your characters. In real-time, it feels like an action game, though you don't control the sword swings. Instead, you control your character's combat skills. You start off, for instance, with shield bash, which lets you use your shield to try and knock an opponent down. As you level up you unlock more combat skills, and you can specialize in different fields, such as sword-and-shield combat, two-handed weapon combat, archery, and more.
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A man's home is his castle, and in this case, doubly so.
After killing the rats and talking to the guests in the castle, it's off to bed you go. But in the middle of the night, disaster strikes and the castle is attacked. With intruders slaying the inhabitants left and right, it's up to you to battle your way to safety. This is a Mature-rated game, which you'll quickly discover when your characters emerge from a battle with blood splattered all over their armor and faces. However, to hammer in the theme that BioWare is playing for keeps, there are some deaths of innocents that might surprise some. Believe us when we say that's just the tip of the iceberg, though.
The prologue ends in defeat, with the castle falling to the enemy and your family slain while you flee in the company of Duncan, the head of the Grey Wardens, an elite fighting force dedicated to battling the darkspawn. In order to save your life, Duncan has recruited you into the order to become a fellow Grey Warden. Now, Grey Wardens could probably be interchanged with elite organizations found in BioWare games, such as Knights of the Old Republic's Jedi Knights or Mass Effect's Spectres. However, that discussion is better left for another time. Let's just say that the human nobles campaign is full of intrigue and deceit, and it sets the stage for a blood-strewn path of vengeance. And it's just one of the six prologues in the game.
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