In my review of Leliana’s Song I noted that the focus was on story and characters and that the combat wasn’t overly challenging. Or even particularly memorable. As though anticipating that very reaction, Bioware has announced that their next DLC will be combat-centric, meant for higher-level players and brutally difficult.
The folks over at the Dragon Age-centric site GreyWardens.com have picked up some excellent info. They clarify the ‘combat centric’ statement based on comments from Bioware producer Fernando Melo:
On the story:
You join a dwarf Jerrik who is searching for his brother, Brogan. In your searches, you discover some items that are glowing with blue magic including Brogan himself, making them impossible to interact with. Eventually finding a magic orb, the orb releasing a power that inverts the world. You can now interact with the previously untouchable items and Brogan, who informs you that there’s some sort of evil behind the entire strange situation.
On calling the DLC ‘combat-centric’ a misnomer:
Melo also clears up that coining the DLC as “combat-focused” isn’t exactly the best way to think of it. “It is not Darkspawn Chronicles. It is more in-line with what you would play in DA:O or Awakening, with voiced party member conversations, story, etc.,” he posted. “… and it is set on a new dwarven thaig. I suspect that’s where some of the “combat focused” comments may be coming from.”
This difficulty level means that you will need to use your tactics slots carefully, plan your battles and carry lots of healing items! Given that I never assigned a single tactics slot in Leliana’s Song this should be a nice change!
Also of interest, although the DLC shows up in the ‘other campaigns’ similar to Darkspawn Chronicles or Leliana’s Song, you are able to import your hero from Dragon Age: Origins just as you could in the Awakenings expansion. This promises to make things even more interesting in terms of character development throughout the module.
I have been thrilled at how the Dragon Age DLC has progressed – we have gotten an expansion, some items, and a few solid and compact modules with specific focus. Contrast this with the scattershot quality (mostly mediocre) of the Mass Effect 2 DLC and it is hard to believe it is the same company!
The DLC is due out on August 10th, but a price has yet to be announced.
There is a new teaser trailer as well – check it out below!
Source: GreyWardens.com
