Gather Your Party

Bioware will be releasing Dragon Age: Those Who Speak, a Dark Horse comic by David Gaider who was the lead writer for Dragon Age Origins and Dragon Age II.

According to Dark Horse, the comic will be canon to the series, and will focus on King Alistair as the protagonist.

The product listing from Dark Horse explains that “a king travels to an empire of evil mages to uncover the fate of his lost father! Accompanied by the pirate captain Isabela and the underworld merchant Varric, King Alistair will stop at nothing to learn the truth—even if it means battling an army of cultists single-handed!”

The Bioware forums are packed to the brim with concept art, and information on both the comic and third game in the series. According Kotaku’s Brian Ashcraft, there was also a survey that asked members and players the title they liked best for the next game in the series:

• Dragon Age 3: The Breach
• Dragon Age 3: Exarch
• Dragon Age 3: Inquisition
• Dragon Age 3: Inquisitor
• Dragon Age 3: Apocrypha

Kotaku went into detail explaining the plot centers around a civil war in Orlais, which was a location in the series. “All of Thedas continent is tossed into chaos, and magical forces have taken out the Chantry’s holy council leadership.”

There was more than just that, as the survey also contained details on the back story:

“A portal between the worlds unleashes hordes [SIC] of demons in the land, civil wars rip apart nations and the corruption is limitless. Someone is behind the shadows, drawing the threads which destroy the world. Time has come for the Inquisition. Take the Inquisitor’s cloak and lead the only forceable of bringing light into the darkness. Choose the direct method and gather your armies, send spies into the shadows or engage in a political war, make friends and use your connections indirectly: it is up to you how you lead the inquisition. But you’ll have to take lead of it from the beginning. Make your player a rogue, warrior or mage and set up your crew from up to ten (!) complex companions to lead them against those who attack you by systematically spying on, revealing and destroying them.”

As the prospect of a new game nears, it’s interesting to see how the series has been received as a whole. Dragon Age Origins was loved by some, and hated by others. The game harkened back to Baldur’s Gate and Neverwinter Nights and gave an interesting take on having romantic interests in your party. I played it on both pc and consoles, and the game was best played for pc. The different story lines were based around the character archetype you chose at the beginning, and eventually you became a grey warden, dealt with political intrigue, and did a lot of dungeon diving.

Then… Dragon Age 2 came out. I’d go into detail, but I figure we can agree that the game was if anything, a rushed, half-done hack job. A majority of the “dungeons” were just reused textures and skins, and let’s not get into the “new action intensive combat system” that basically consisted of just constantly mashing a single button.

I can’t guess when the next Dragon Age comes out, but if anything, I’m going to keep my fingers crossed and hope Bioware avoids trying to stay “action oriented” and instead give a more fleshed out, deeper story that isn’t just an exaggerated dating simulator. Then again, with EA at the helm it’s likely it may be rushed and I can only hope that the combat will be more challenging than just constantly hitting the same button over and over.