Compared to Dragon Age: Origins, DA II was a bit... constrained. Kirkwall was nice and all, but the game's wide-ranging adventure spanning a cave, a beach, and then the same cave again didn't exactly make Alistair, Morrigan, and friends go green with epicness envy. It wasn't terrible by any means, but it certainly left many fans clamoring for more. A lot more. And, happily, it sounds like BioWare listened.
“[The next Dragon Age] is gonna have the best of features from the prior Dragon Age games, but it's also gonna have a lot of things I think players are gonna find compelling from some of the games that are out now that are doing really well with more of an open world feel,” BioWare co-founder Ray Muzyka told Wired .
“We're checking [Skyrim] out aggressively. We like it. We're big admirers of [Bethesda] and the product,” he added. “We think we can do some wonderful things.”
Further, he hinted that DA III could apply DA II's multi-year storyline technique to a much wider range of locations. And, when asked if players would be able to choose what their party - as opposed to just their main character - would be wearing to the ol' Darkspawn murder prom, Muzyka noted that “We realize that's important to the players.”
So then, it's no bullet-proof guarantee of a return to form, but he's definitely got my attention. That said, here's hoping BioWare really takes its time and gets things right this time around. DA II was rushed, and it showed. Besides, I'd rather not end up playing Backward Flying Dragon Age.
