infexxionWhat Does Dragon Age 3 Need?
It's been a while since we've heard any news concerning Dragon Age. With two full games, an expansion, and plenty of DLC, this is a series that's grounded fairly well on its own so far. But with a third title in the works, what does it, and the series, need to be at the forefront of gamers' minds?
In a nutshell, we know the game will: be set in Thedas, cover a much larger geographical territory, focus on mages vs. templars, and will once again feature a new protagonist. There are rumors circulating of multiplayer, as well, though this is neither confirmed or denied.
It sounds like Bioware has the game grounded well from the few details we know. The Mages vs. Templars is a direct continuation of Dragon Age 2, which will be really awesome to see. The larger area also suggests the game will be broader in scope then say, Dragon Age 2, which focused on one character and his life only.
I'll go ahead and give my take on the multiplayer rumors. It's been said to be a player vs. environment vs. player style multiplayer, where you're taking on real players and AI enemies/environmental hazards. There was also a report of being able to control a dragon, which was surprising. It sounds like it could work, and with combat being tweaked, it's possible it could work surprisingly well. I hope it's not combat-centric though, I'd like some story elements thrown in.
I'd also like to see the choices from past games impacting the game in a much more direct way, such as maybe meeting the Warden you played in the first game, or, depending on which side Hawke took in Dragon Age 2 and which side your new character in 3 is on, having to fight with/against Hawke. Those type of big game-changing things would fit perfectly in this third installment.
Dragon Age 2 did an alright job of painting the mage vs templar picture as something where both sides are right, but the end boss of 2 worked against that theme in the overall grand scale of things. I'd like to see that rectified, and for Dragon Age 3 to stress both sides of things, and truly make it one of the hardest decisions on who to side with.
I'm also expecting a fairly new cast of companions, with maybe one or two familiar faces. I can almost guarantee Anders will be reduced to a non-companion roll leading the mages, should he survive your game in 2. And seeing as you can end up killing most of your companions in Origins, I'd be surprised to see any of them return as full companions (although more than once they've had a character you killed come back to life). But I'd be all for new companions, most of them in Dragon Age 2 weren't as believable as Origins'.
Were it up to me, I'd ditch the dialogue wheel and voiced protagonist entirely, I was perfectly fine with the way Origins handled it. Am I the only one not bothered by selecting a dialogue option and not hearing the character say it? I'd rather have 4-5 choices each time and have them diverge to wildly different conclusions without voicing, rather than 2-3 choices that don't affect things too much, but are voiced.
And finally, I'd like Dragon Age 3 to present the sense of scale that was missing in Dragon Age 2. Origins had it, but it didn't set in until you were a decent ways into the game. With Dragon Age 3 picking up with the Mages and Templars already at war, I think it's safe to say we'll get that grand sense of scale right off the bat, and it should be very epic indeed. I hope there are many large choices to make that ripple throughout Thedas entirely.
I'm pretty excited for Dragon Age 3. I hope they can merge the best parts of Origins and 2 together to create an epic third entry in this series that focuses on roleplaying, epic battles, and heavy choices with lasting consequences.
What do you think? Do you want the Origins style back entirely? Were you a fan of Dragon Age 2's style instead? Do you want multiplayer in Dragon age 3? As always, let me know in the comments, and thanks for reading!
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