Dragon Age: Origins - Choice 2.0

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Shir'le E. Illios
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Dragon Age: Origins - Choice 2.0

Post by Shir'le E. Illios »

With GamesCom starting there's a couple of articles showing a taste of the choices players get to make in Dragon Age: Origins and the consequences of them.

There is one on [url=http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/72908:2ti0v5oa]TenTonHammer[/url:2ti0v5oa] and one on [url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/vi ... 0:2ti0v5oa]The Escapist[/url:2ti0v5oa], both talking about the same situation (TenTonHammer going into more detail).

Of course, both are quite filled with spoilers for that quest and, in particularly, some of the potentially major consequences. But they do clearly illustrate how no choice is really clear-cut good-or-evil (there are things to say for both choices presented) and both definitely shades of grey (though I personally agree more with Laidlaw's take).

To give you a spoiler-free excerpt from the TenTonHammer article:

[quote:2ti0v5oa]Now most people have seen choices in video games before, and they're all over in BioWare games. For roleplaying gamers especially, the notion of choice isn’t anything new by any stretch of the imagination. Even MMOs like [i:2ti0v5oa]Age of Conan[/i:2ti0v5oa] and [i:2ti0v5oa]Tabula Rasa[/i:2ti0v5oa] have used choice and storytelling as one of their selling points. But the Dragon Age developers are looking to do something more with their iteration on the mechanics of decision making.

“What you’re going to see if the 2.0 version of choice,” Silverman continued. “It’s [asking the gamer] what they would do if their morality was brought into question. What do you do when there isn’t a clear good or bad choice? When it’s not just a question of kicking kittens or saving babies?”

“Even in the origin stories,” Laidlaw explained, “you’ll find these sort of decisions to make. There may be a lean to them one way or the other, but you can certainly justify the things that you do.”

For the demonstration, Laidlaw and Silverman dropped the audience into one of those moral choices that will affect the rest of the game for the player. And, as Laidlaw explained, the choice was far from clear cut.[/quote:2ti0v5oa]
But perhaps more striking is the closing paragraph on The Escapist (again spoiler-free):

[quote:2ti0v5oa]If the demo from GamesCom is any indication, the situations you face in [i:2ti0v5oa]Dragon Age: Origins[/i:2ti0v5oa] will be some of the most nuanced ever presented in a videogame. I'll have more insight - and details about my hands-on time with the game (holy [i:2ti0v5oa]crap[/i:2ti0v5oa], it's good) - for you soon. Oh, by the way, that dragon in the picture? He's hungry and you're tasty. Hope all that pontificating about your moral quandary didn't make you to tired to fight.[/quote:2ti0v5oa]
I particularly find the little bit between brackets there nice to read. Just someone other than the developers saying that they feel it is very good, helps cement my confidence in this game. :)

Oh, and speaking of pictures, there's [url=http://www.vg247.com/2009/08/19/gamesco ... /:2ti0v5oa]bunch of those too[/url:2ti0v5oa]. I don't think it's much of a spoiler to realize some of your choices can lead to you fighting your (potential) party members.


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Shir'le
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-= Shir'le E. Illios =-
Chosen of Eilistraee
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