(CONFIRMED)Release Date: March 16, 2010
We've got the latest details on the upcoming expansion pack.
January 6, 2010 - Yesterday, BioWare and Electronic Arts announced Dragon Age: Origins -- Awakening, the first expansion pack to the critically acclaimed RPG. Set after the events of Origins, players will face new threats to the land as they attempt to recruit new party members to rebuild the fabled Grey Warden order. Packed with a ton of new features -- including new party members, specializations and a larger level cap -- Awakening should draw players right back to the realm of Ferelden.
IGN spoke with Fernando Melo, the Online Producer of the upcoming expansion pack, to get a little more insight about Awakening. Along with a few story and character details, we also managed to get some additional information about the recently delayed Return to Ostagar DLC.
IGN: Awakening takes place after the events of Origins. How much time has passed before the expansion takes place? How does it fit in with the existing game and how do players access its content?
Fernando Melo: Several months have passed since the end of Origins, or more correctly, the end of the Blight, which is the game's focus for Origins. You are sort of thrust forward as the new Grey Warden Commander in the land. You are given an area of the world which we haven't explored previously called Amaranthine in the north of Ferelden. Basically, there are lots of things that have been happening there, lots of rumors; again, the Blight has just ended, so communication is still very poor -- people are still not really travelling the roads that much, etc. They're kind of sending you up there to figure out what's going on and also to give the Grey Wardens their rightful place back into the world based on what they've just done.
So, you basically arrive there, start to hear rumors and discover what's going on. We'll cover more of the back story later, but you discover that the Darkspawn have not gone back underground as has happened in previous Blights. Something else is keeping them out. You also hear about something a little more sinister: smarter, thinking, talking Darkspawn, which had never been seen before. There are some really good, very subtle connections with David Gaider's second book, The Calling, where he references the character of the Architect. That's kind of going to be your nemesis in Awakening. There are no spoilers or anything like that in the book -- you can read a little bit about the background of the character and what makes him tick. You'll be a little bit more familiar about the Architect, but it won't spoil anything for the game.
In terms of stepping back from the user's experience, you can start your new campaign in Awakening from scratch, in which case you go through character creation. You actually arrive as an Orlesian Grey Warden Commander. It's not the same depth of something like an origin story, but there is a brand new beginning to the campaign there, and then you're thrust into the tale. Because Awakening does level you up, and is set to take characters that have completed Origins, we're really raising the level cap above the 20s. What we do is basically create a new character for you that's at a suitable level somewhere between 17 and 20 -- we're still doing the final balancing pass for that. So during your character creation, you'll actually have more points to spend, and a lot of new spells and abilities to pick from.
You also have the option to import your character from Origins through loading a saved game, and that can be done at any time. You actually don't need to have completed Origins to jump into Awakening, but it is a one way process. Once you make the jump to fast forward that amount of time, you effectively end that Origins campaign and you begin the Awakening campaign with that character. You can always go back to your Origins save and continue that separately, but once you go into Awakening, because of the level up and the time passage, there is no coming back to Origins at that point.
IGN: Speaking of the level cap, can you tell us what the new level cap will be raised to?
Fernando Melo:We can't because we're still balancing it. You will probably end up in the mid to high 30s -- that's kind of the current thinking, but that may still change.
IGN: Are you approaching story or game mechanics differently based on the reception of the original game?
Fernando Melo: The entire story is based on a new plot, and you have new followers, which you'll have to discover what makes them go and how to keep them going. One of the best things that was well-received from Origins was the follower banter and how you micromanage them at times. So you're going to have a lot more of that.
But one of the things that we wanted to do with Dragon Age as a franchise is that it's all based on choices and consequences. So there is a lot of reactivity to things that you've done in Origins if you choose to import that character. Of course, that will depend on the decisions you made and at what point you're importing them into Awakening. For instance, if you're coming from the end game save, then there's going to be a lot more reactivity, including [Spoilers Ahead!] right down to the very choices of how the Archdemon was defeated and who you put on the throne and all that kind of stuff -- hopefully that's not going to spoil it for you! If you choose to import from a much earlier point, then there may not be as much reactivity, but you'll hear about certain rumors.
For example, if you choose the brand new story of the Orlesian commander, in some cases, you actually come across cameos of some of your followers. You'll kind of hear about the tales of what happened and how something did or didn't happen, etc. If you ever go back to Origins to replay that, you'll see a different perspective as to what happened there, which is kind of neat. But really it's all about unveiling a brand new chapter in the tapestry of Dragon Age, where it's a brand new area. It has its own creatures, it has its own mythos around that area and things that are happening there, and there's a lot to explore. Much like with Origins, there are a lot of different options that you can take there. It's really more about enriching the overall game world as opposed to reactivity to Origins. There's some of that, but really the focus is on our brand new story.
IGN spoke with Fernando Melo, the Online Producer of the upcoming expansion pack, to get a little more insight about Awakening. Along with a few story and character details, we also managed to get some additional information about the recently delayed Return to Ostagar DLC.
IGN: Awakening takes place after the events of Origins. How much time has passed before the expansion takes place? How does it fit in with the existing game and how do players access its content?
Fernando Melo: Several months have passed since the end of Origins, or more correctly, the end of the Blight, which is the game's focus for Origins. You are sort of thrust forward as the new Grey Warden Commander in the land. You are given an area of the world which we haven't explored previously called Amaranthine in the north of Ferelden. Basically, there are lots of things that have been happening there, lots of rumors; again, the Blight has just ended, so communication is still very poor -- people are still not really travelling the roads that much, etc. They're kind of sending you up there to figure out what's going on and also to give the Grey Wardens their rightful place back into the world based on what they've just done.
So, you basically arrive there, start to hear rumors and discover what's going on. We'll cover more of the back story later, but you discover that the Darkspawn have not gone back underground as has happened in previous Blights. Something else is keeping them out. You also hear about something a little more sinister: smarter, thinking, talking Darkspawn, which had never been seen before. There are some really good, very subtle connections with David Gaider's second book, The Calling, where he references the character of the Architect. That's kind of going to be your nemesis in Awakening. There are no spoilers or anything like that in the book -- you can read a little bit about the background of the character and what makes him tick. You'll be a little bit more familiar about the Architect, but it won't spoil anything for the game.
Prepare to meet your new nemesis.
In terms of stepping back from the user's experience, you can start your new campaign in Awakening from scratch, in which case you go through character creation. You actually arrive as an Orlesian Grey Warden Commander. It's not the same depth of something like an origin story, but there is a brand new beginning to the campaign there, and then you're thrust into the tale. Because Awakening does level you up, and is set to take characters that have completed Origins, we're really raising the level cap above the 20s. What we do is basically create a new character for you that's at a suitable level somewhere between 17 and 20 -- we're still doing the final balancing pass for that. So during your character creation, you'll actually have more points to spend, and a lot of new spells and abilities to pick from.
You also have the option to import your character from Origins through loading a saved game, and that can be done at any time. You actually don't need to have completed Origins to jump into Awakening, but it is a one way process. Once you make the jump to fast forward that amount of time, you effectively end that Origins campaign and you begin the Awakening campaign with that character. You can always go back to your Origins save and continue that separately, but once you go into Awakening, because of the level up and the time passage, there is no coming back to Origins at that point.
IGN: Speaking of the level cap, can you tell us what the new level cap will be raised to?
Fernando Melo:We can't because we're still balancing it. You will probably end up in the mid to high 30s -- that's kind of the current thinking, but that may still change.
IGN: Are you approaching story or game mechanics differently based on the reception of the original game?
Fernando Melo: The entire story is based on a new plot, and you have new followers, which you'll have to discover what makes them go and how to keep them going. One of the best things that was well-received from Origins was the follower banter and how you micromanage them at times. So you're going to have a lot more of that.
But one of the things that we wanted to do with Dragon Age as a franchise is that it's all based on choices and consequences. So there is a lot of reactivity to things that you've done in Origins if you choose to import that character. Of course, that will depend on the decisions you made and at what point you're importing them into Awakening. For instance, if you're coming from the end game save, then there's going to be a lot more reactivity, including [Spoilers Ahead!] right down to the very choices of how the Archdemon was defeated and who you put on the throne and all that kind of stuff -- hopefully that's not going to spoil it for you! If you choose to import from a much earlier point, then there may not be as much reactivity, but you'll hear about certain rumors.
You'll explore strange new areas of Ferelden.
For example, if you choose the brand new story of the Orlesian commander, in some cases, you actually come across cameos of some of your followers. You'll kind of hear about the tales of what happened and how something did or didn't happen, etc. If you ever go back to Origins to replay that, you'll see a different perspective as to what happened there, which is kind of neat. But really it's all about unveiling a brand new chapter in the tapestry of Dragon Age, where it's a brand new area. It has its own creatures, it has its own mythos around that area and things that are happening there, and there's a lot to explore. Much like with Origins, there are a lot of different options that you can take there. It's really more about enriching the overall game world as opposed to reactivity to Origins. There's some of that, but really the focus is on our brand new story.
IGN: Let me follow that up with a two part question: will there be any further expansion on the origins of an imported character? For example, if I played as a human noble, will I return to Highever or interact with characters from my past? On the other hand, if you choose the Orlesian commander, will they instantly have a connection with Leliana, since she's from Orlais?
Fernando Melo: In regards to your first example, you will have some connection to the fact that you were a noble. I'll leave that very vague so I don't spoil anything, but basically because you now have ownership of this area of the world, there is a feudal hierarchy that will take place. You'll see nobles come to you, etc, so there is already some recognition of the fact that you're coming from noble blood there, as opposed to if you're a commoner or from one of the other races. There's already some tension there even though they respect your position and rule.
With regards to things like Leliana; again, there are some cameos -- there is one party member that returns that can join your party and continue on. I think we're trying to keep that under wraps until a little bit closer to launch though.
IGN: Awakening will also feature new party members. Is there anything you can tell us about them?
Fernando: Melo: We're going to keep most of the details under wraps so we can unveil them, but their writing comes from the same folks that wrote Origins. Very interesting personalities all over again -- it seems that's what we thrive on, and personally, I really enjoy the party members in Awakening a lot more. You have everything from foil characters that are there for comic relief and banter all the way to characters that have more sexual tension with other party members. It's kind of humorous to follow their attempts. There's definitely going to be a lot of richness to the characters you meet.
IGN: One of the things mentioned in the press release was the option to re-spec characters. Can you tell us a bit more about that feature? Is there a story context for this, or is it just available once you import your character?
Fernando Melo: One of the things that we recognized is that you could be coming in to Awakening having completed Origins, or very early at any point in Origins and artificially leveled up. There's a lot of new spells, new specializations, new talents, and one of the things is that there will be new chains and extensions to some of them. We recognized that some people could get cornered because of the points they've already been spending and won't have access to the new specializations, etc. So one of the things we wanted to do is give you the ability to basically force a re-spec of the character where you could re-spend all your points. Everything from attribute points all the way to your skills, talents, spells and specializations. So if you wanted to, you could basically redesign your character.
You don't lose your plot data from Origins, in terms of your experience and you get that reactivity, if that's what you want, out of Awakening. But you have a much easier time of trying out a lot of the new spells and abilities without having to go back to start a character with a blank slate, such as the Orlesian commander, or having to replay most of Origins -- which is massive -- to win some of that back. In terms of the mechanic itself, you do get it when you do your import, but there's also something similar to the tomes that give you a skill or talent point where you'll use an item and force a level up notification. When you click on that, your points are unspent and you can now re-spend them all. It's fairly basic; the tome itself does have a little bit of lore to it, but there isn't a story or quest attached to it. It's basically there for you to use at any point in your Awakening adventure.
IGN: Can you tell us anything about the new monsters, like the Inferno Golem and the Spectral Dragon?
Fernando Melo: Similar to the characters, we'll be rolling out more details about the creatures. As I mentioned earlier, there's a host of brand new creatures. If you look at the box shot [of Awakening], it's similar to Origins where you had the blood red dragon on white, and then within that was some imagery. The imagery for Awakening is a brand new creature called The Children, which we haven't really talked about yet. I think it'll be a really, really interesting creature for people to meet. We have the spectral dragon, which I believe is in the trailer as well, and the golem, which we've talked a little bit about. there's a host of brand new creatures that the team has been working on, along with full new animations for killing them. So I think it'll be a really, really good pay off, and of course, there's a lot of existing creatures. Plus, there is the Architect and some of the new Darkspawn as well.
Fernando Melo: In regards to your first example, you will have some connection to the fact that you were a noble. I'll leave that very vague so I don't spoil anything, but basically because you now have ownership of this area of the world, there is a feudal hierarchy that will take place. You'll see nobles come to you, etc, so there is already some recognition of the fact that you're coming from noble blood there, as opposed to if you're a commoner or from one of the other races. There's already some tension there even though they respect your position and rule.
With regards to things like Leliana; again, there are some cameos -- there is one party member that returns that can join your party and continue on. I think we're trying to keep that under wraps until a little bit closer to launch though.
IGN: Awakening will also feature new party members. Is there anything you can tell us about them?
Fernando: Melo: We're going to keep most of the details under wraps so we can unveil them, but their writing comes from the same folks that wrote Origins. Very interesting personalities all over again -- it seems that's what we thrive on, and personally, I really enjoy the party members in Awakening a lot more. You have everything from foil characters that are there for comic relief and banter all the way to characters that have more sexual tension with other party members. It's kind of humorous to follow their attempts. There's definitely going to be a lot of richness to the characters you meet.
Not exactly a fair fight, is it?
IGN: One of the things mentioned in the press release was the option to re-spec characters. Can you tell us a bit more about that feature? Is there a story context for this, or is it just available once you import your character?
Fernando Melo: One of the things that we recognized is that you could be coming in to Awakening having completed Origins, or very early at any point in Origins and artificially leveled up. There's a lot of new spells, new specializations, new talents, and one of the things is that there will be new chains and extensions to some of them. We recognized that some people could get cornered because of the points they've already been spending and won't have access to the new specializations, etc. So one of the things we wanted to do is give you the ability to basically force a re-spec of the character where you could re-spend all your points. Everything from attribute points all the way to your skills, talents, spells and specializations. So if you wanted to, you could basically redesign your character.
You don't lose your plot data from Origins, in terms of your experience and you get that reactivity, if that's what you want, out of Awakening. But you have a much easier time of trying out a lot of the new spells and abilities without having to go back to start a character with a blank slate, such as the Orlesian commander, or having to replay most of Origins -- which is massive -- to win some of that back. In terms of the mechanic itself, you do get it when you do your import, but there's also something similar to the tomes that give you a skill or talent point where you'll use an item and force a level up notification. When you click on that, your points are unspent and you can now re-spend them all. It's fairly basic; the tome itself does have a little bit of lore to it, but there isn't a story or quest attached to it. It's basically there for you to use at any point in your Awakening adventure.
No, the dragon is not made from neon.
IGN: Can you tell us anything about the new monsters, like the Inferno Golem and the Spectral Dragon?
Fernando Melo: Similar to the characters, we'll be rolling out more details about the creatures. As I mentioned earlier, there's a host of brand new creatures. If you look at the box shot [of Awakening], it's similar to Origins where you had the blood red dragon on white, and then within that was some imagery. The imagery for Awakening is a brand new creature called The Children, which we haven't really talked about yet. I think it'll be a really, really interesting creature for people to meet. We have the spectral dragon, which I believe is in the trailer as well, and the golem, which we've talked a little bit about. there's a host of brand new creatures that the team has been working on, along with full new animations for killing them. So I think it'll be a really, really good pay off, and of course, there's a lot of existing creatures. Plus, there is the Architect and some of the new Darkspawn as well.
IGN: How large is the expansion in terms of memory? Are you offering it as a download item for people that bought digital copies, or is it solely available as a retail disc version?
Fernando Melo: There will be both retail and download versions of it. It is by far the biggest expansion that we'll be releasing. I can't talk about the number of hours at this point, but in general, you can definitely expect a lot of gameplay. I don't think we know how to make games differently. Even without the replayability, I think it's safe to say that it's larger than pretty much any downloadable content out there. I think we need to treat it a lot more like a traditional retail expansion, which is really what it is -- it'll just have a downloadable version as well. But it'll be fairly massive. It'll be bigger than most retail games.
IGN: Origins has been supported by a large amount of DLC from launch. The most recent of which, Return to Ostagar, has been delayed until the end of January at the earliest. Is there any explanation as to why the delay occurred? Is it solely to release the DLC for all three platforms at the same time, or was there another issue?
Fernando Melo:No, it has nothing to do with platforms themselves. It's a quality issue where, literally, at the last minute, we spotted something that had made it through our own testing, EA's testing and was at Microsoft already. But it applies to all three platforms; it wasn't something specific to Microsoft, we just happened to catch it there first. We probably could have gone with it, but it's something that was serious enough that we felt it impacted the quality [of the DLC] and we made the choice to delay it to give our fans the best experience with it. That was the reason behind [the delay] -- we want to make sure that we don't cut any corners when we do the DLC. There's already a lot of content out, there's a lot more coming -- we just announced the expansion pack, and there's more coming after that. I think the worst thing we could do after that is do anything "to poison the well," to use the expression, or put fans off from feeling that they're getting the best content from us. It's a long term decision instead of a short term decision.
Fernando Melo: The real win for Return to Ostagar will come from some of the replayability. All of the party members will react differently. Not to spoil anything, but you will come across the king's body, of course -- you are there to recover his items and things, and your party all react differently to what's going on. The area has been infested with Darkspawn, so there are some very cool fights there. We also kind of hinted at it in the trailer -- you do run into the actual ogre that killed the king and potentially killed your mentor as well. In terms of emotional storytelling, it's actually very, very rich from that perspective, and it's something that I'm really looking forward to seeing fan reaction and hearing which party members they decided to take with them, as well as what they thought of some of the reactions they came across.
IGN: Is there anything else that you'd like to say to fans?
Fernando Melo:I think in terms of Awakening itself, it is going to be fairly huge. I don't think that we know how to make games any differently, so the expansion is no different. I think people will be really pleased with the richness of the characters that are going to be in there, especially with looking at the forum feedback, which we're always paying attention to. So far on the forums, that seems to be a really high point for people that they love. There are all the new creatures as well, and I think the fact that it's a brand new area with all geography and climates and stuff to deal with -- I think it's going to be an amazing package.
In terms of Return to Ostagar, like we talked about: yes, there's a delay there, but I think it was the right one to make sure that the quality was good. It's more to do with the long term view that we have a lot more coming and we don't want to do anything short term that would put people off. That's never a good decision in our mind.
IGN: Thanks for your time.
Fernando Melo: There will be both retail and download versions of it. It is by far the biggest expansion that we'll be releasing. I can't talk about the number of hours at this point, but in general, you can definitely expect a lot of gameplay. I don't think we know how to make games differently. Even without the replayability, I think it's safe to say that it's larger than pretty much any downloadable content out there. I think we need to treat it a lot more like a traditional retail expansion, which is really what it is -- it'll just have a downloadable version as well. But it'll be fairly massive. It'll be bigger than most retail games.
IGN: Origins has been supported by a large amount of DLC from launch. The most recent of which, Return to Ostagar, has been delayed until the end of January at the earliest. Is there any explanation as to why the delay occurred? Is it solely to release the DLC for all three platforms at the same time, or was there another issue?
Fernando Melo:No, it has nothing to do with platforms themselves. It's a quality issue where, literally, at the last minute, we spotted something that had made it through our own testing, EA's testing and was at Microsoft already. But it applies to all three platforms; it wasn't something specific to Microsoft, we just happened to catch it there first. We probably could have gone with it, but it's something that was serious enough that we felt it impacted the quality [of the DLC] and we made the choice to delay it to give our fans the best experience with it. That was the reason behind [the delay] -- we want to make sure that we don't cut any corners when we do the DLC. There's already a lot of content out, there's a lot more coming -- we just announced the expansion pack, and there's more coming after that. I think the worst thing we could do after that is do anything "to poison the well," to use the expression, or put fans off from feeling that they're getting the best content from us. It's a long term decision instead of a short term decision.
Knew I should have taken a right turn at Denerim...
Fernando Melo: The real win for Return to Ostagar will come from some of the replayability. All of the party members will react differently. Not to spoil anything, but you will come across the king's body, of course -- you are there to recover his items and things, and your party all react differently to what's going on. The area has been infested with Darkspawn, so there are some very cool fights there. We also kind of hinted at it in the trailer -- you do run into the actual ogre that killed the king and potentially killed your mentor as well. In terms of emotional storytelling, it's actually very, very rich from that perspective, and it's something that I'm really looking forward to seeing fan reaction and hearing which party members they decided to take with them, as well as what they thought of some of the reactions they came across.
IGN: Is there anything else that you'd like to say to fans?
Fernando Melo:I think in terms of Awakening itself, it is going to be fairly huge. I don't think that we know how to make games any differently, so the expansion is no different. I think people will be really pleased with the richness of the characters that are going to be in there, especially with looking at the forum feedback, which we're always paying attention to. So far on the forums, that seems to be a really high point for people that they love. There are all the new creatures as well, and I think the fact that it's a brand new area with all geography and climates and stuff to deal with -- I think it's going to be an amazing package.
In terms of Return to Ostagar, like we talked about: yes, there's a delay there, but I think it was the right one to make sure that the quality was good. It's more to do with the long term view that we have a lot more coming and we don't want to do anything short term that would put people off. That's never a good decision in our mind.
IGN: Thanks for your time.
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