I played Dragon Age: Origins on my then-aging (and now ancient) laptop when it was released, and the experience was miserable. A mere campfire would send the frame rate spiraling to its death, and I was eventually forced to give up. This kept me away from the series for awhile, but Dragon Age: Inquisition's impressive new dragon combat (not to mention its sizable world and next-gen sheen) has me clamoring to try the series again. Not only that, but it now has an official release date: October 7th.
The info comes via a brand new trailer, released by EA this morning and uploaded to the official Dragon Age YouTube channel. In addition to a release date, the trailer offers some limited insight to the game's story. A female narrator laments a tragic disaster, and is soon revealed to be addressing the presumed protagonist. Because the protagonist survived a disastrous event with no knowledge of how or why, it's seen as suspicious — and so our journey begins! Or something.
Further story details will no-doubt be revealed in time, but the trailer does offer a nice taste of what's to come. Additionally, the game's producer Cameron Lee spoke with IGN about the new dragon combat, and from what he says, it sounds promising.
When I’m attacking a dragon, I’m not just hitting all of it. I’m hitting its leg, I’m hitting its wing, and that should matter. It should matter where I attack a dragon…that’s something we’re really trying to lean on, and when we come to E3, we’ll really be able to show it in all its glory.
Hey, E3! The game's presence there was previously unconfirmed, if I'm not mistaken. Lee continued, elaborating on the various dragon types in the game, and how they'll be brought to their knees by the player.
There will be multiple, different types of dragons with different breath attacks, elemental attacks…some dragons are more armored than others. That difference in elements, armor types, and properties of the dragon definitely inform how you approach them from a combat perspective. The team synergy, the party synergy, the difference in abilities in combat can strengthen your ability to fight this thing.
It certainly sounds interesting — and honestly, it's what I always hoped a game like Skyrim would be. If Dragon Age: Inquisition injects dragon encounters with some no-nonsense combat and strategy, then taking the winged terrors down stands to be immensely satisfying. I'm thinking Monster Hunter-level payoffs, except less frantic hacking and more careful planning.
Dragon Age: Inquisition is coming to a multitude of platforms, which means you should be able to play it one way or another. October 7th will see the game's release on PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Windows, so be sure to get your dragon-slaying schemata in order by then.
