Дискуссионный Клуб "Покусанный Инквизитор"

[Налия 11 674]

Таверна отныне перестроена в приличный дискуссионный клуб, где будут обсуждаться новости по ДА4 и вестись беседы на серьёзные темы вроде политической обстановки в Тедасе.

сайт игры

 

Напоминание: Флудилок больше нет, а это значит, что флуд и прочие нарушения будут наказываться соответствующим образом. Дебаты (спор ради спора), беспредметный флуд, темы не касающейся вселенной Dragon Age запрещены.

 

 

 

Итак! Информации пока по игре немного, однако есть прекрасный тизер трейлера греющий душу любого фаната DA. 

Скрытый текст

 

 

 

Изменено 29 декабря, 2018 пользователем Лелька

[Alishino 700]

1 минуту назад, cyare сказал:

двух хтоней

Почему он просто их не убьёт, интересно. Они прям совсем не убиваемые что ли??

Изменено 18 июня пользователем Alishino

[Andrey_S_2020 3 272]

Только что, cyare сказал:

Неизвестно каким образом бы срыв завесы убил людей. Мб это была бы безболезненная смерть... Ну информации точной нет. 

В геймплее он Варрику говорит что не велика беда, люди все равно умирают.

Меня тригерят эти слова. Подчеркивает его надменность что он не удосужился объяснить Варрику что происходит. Это раз. И два после перемещения Хтоньки и Шпоньки он все равно планировал сорвать Завесу. 

[seda_rostro 16 521]

1 минуту назад, Andrey_S_2020 сказал:

Говорят Маяк так как в Тени реагирует на мысли, эмоции, чувства находящихся в нем и окружающий мир. Вообще интересная задумка, если Маяк  будет преобразовываться от прохождения и сделанных твоих выборов то хорошо. Люблю такое.

И еще кровь Рука связывающего с Завесой или Тенью, намного лучше чем просто тупой кинжал полученный от Соласа. Кинжал-то мы получим но объясняловка с кровью мне нравится. 

А что там с кровью Рука? Напишите плиз подробнее

[KellyL 3 332]

2 минуты назад, seda_rostro сказал:

Вообще, а что Солас сделал? По сути ничего. Не успел.  

Опять апартаменты гг подогнал получается. Вторую игру живём у Соласа дома

[White_Male 3 928]

Только что, Alishino сказал:

Почему он просто их не убьёт, интересно. Они прям совсем не убиваемые что ли??

Потому что он слабейший. Против Эльгарнана шансов нуль.

[Andrey_S_2020 3 272]

1 минуту назад, cyare сказал:

Черный город получается не в тени? Или в тень действительно можно было попасть с помощью элувианов все это время??

Да в Тени он. Нигде не сказано про ЧГ или ЗГ. 

[seda_rostro 16 521]

2 минуты назад, Alishino сказал:

Почему он просто их не убьёт, интересно. Они прям совсем не убиваемые что ли??

Мне думается, что он просто этого не хочет. Какими бы они ни были, они все же те самые «его люди»

Изменено 18 июня пользователем seda_rostro

[White_Male 3 928]

Только что, KellyL сказал:

Опять апартаменты гг подогнал получается. Вторую игру живём у Соласа дома

I gift her castle. Bitches love castles(c) 

[_Wander_ 310]

Только что, Andrey_S_2020 сказал:

И еще кровь Рука связывающего с Завесой или Тенью, намного лучше чем просто тупой кинжал полученный от Соласа. 

Интересно, что он на этот раз глав.герою оттяпает, если тот захворает из-за Тени. 

Изменено 18 июня пользователем _Wander_

[White_Male 3 928]

Только что, _Wander_ сказал:

Интересно, что он на этот раз глав.герою оттяпает, если тот захворает из-за Тени.

Руку, опять. Концентрация магической радиации повыше Лавнлановской 

[Heaven's Secret 16 313]

Только что, seda_rostro сказал:

Мне думается, что он просто этого не хочет. Какими бы они ни были, они все же та самые «его люди»

"Первые из моего народа так просто не умирают".

Ему пришлось целую Завесу создать, чтобы те не угробили мир.

[dsm 590]

1 минуту назад, Andrey_S_2020 сказал:

В геймплее он Варрику говорит что не велика беда, люди все равно умирают.

Меня тригерят эти слова. Подчеркивает его надменность что он не удосужился объяснить Варрику что происходит. Это раз. И два после перемещения Хтоньки и Шпоньки он все равно планировал сорвать Завесу. 

Он так говорит, потому для него это правда (он увидел Варрика сильно постаревшем и просевшим, а сам притом свеж и бодр) и потому что так комфортнее мыслить, это когнитивное упрощение

[_Wander_ 310]

Только что, White_Male сказал:

Руку, опять. Концентрация магической радиации повыше Лавнлановской 

Мне кажется, что к таким рукам он не притронется. 

[Соня Соня 6 290]

5 минут назад, seda_rostro сказал:

Мы еще даже не начали)

А Инквизиция что делала, собственно?

6 минут назад, seda_rostro сказал:

Вообще, а что Солас сделал? По сути ничего. Не успел. 

Выпустил двух хтоней?

 

[Andrey_S_2020 3 272]

1 минуту назад, seda_rostro сказал:

А что там с кровью Рука? Напишите плиз подробнее

После потасовки Рук оказывается в Тени. Где голос Соласа объясняет ему (или сам Солас, хз) что кровь Рука попала в ритуал и он теперь связан с Тенью. Сам же Солас оказался в темнице Хтоньки, а те оба на свободе. 

Отсюда мы не можем юзать магию крови, получаем какие-то видимо (мое уже предположение) плюшки. И Маяк в придачу. 

[cyare 565]

17 минут назад, Alishino сказал:

Почему он просто их не убьёт, интересно. Они прям совсем не убиваемые что ли??

Вероятно нет, ведь изначально он также их заточил обманом. А если б мог тогда на расвете сил прибить, то прибил бы.

18 минут назад, Andrey_S_2020 сказал:

В геймплее он Варрику говорит что не велика беда, люди все равно умирают.

Меня тригерят эти слова. Подчеркивает его надменность что он не удосужился объяснить Варрику что происходит. Это раз. И два после перемещения Хтоньки и Шпоньки он все равно планировал сорвать Завесу. 

Ну это то понятно. Но он не злодей в плане, что хочет чтоб все страдали и т.д. 

Так что вполне вероятно что срыв завесы бы прибил всех нежно))

 

17 минут назад, Andrey_S_2020 сказал:

Да в Тени он. Нигде не сказано про ЧГ или ЗГ. 

Несколько страниц назад я задавалась вопросом про маяк, на который никто не ответил... Просто человек так уверенно ответил про ЧГ.

 

Как маяк может находиться в тени, если мы путешествуем туда сюда посредством элувианов?

[KellyL 3 332]

1 минуту назад, dsm сказал:

Он так говорит, потому для него это правда (он увидел Варрика сильно постаревшем и просевшим, а сам притом свеж и бодр) и потому что так комфортнее мыслить, это когнитивное упрощение

А он сам то смертный сейчас или как? 

[White_Male 3 928]

3 минуты назад, Andrey_S_2020 сказал:

В геймплее он Варрику говорит что не велика беда, люди все равно умирают.

Меня тригерят эти слова. Подчеркивает его надменность что он не удосужился объяснить Варрику что происходит. Это раз. И два после перемещения Хтоньки и Шпоньки он все равно планировал сорвать Завесу. 

— Да, они умрут. Сегодня, завтра, год спустя или через сотню лет: какая разница? Они смертные.

[seda_rostro 16 521]

Только что, Соня Соня сказал:

Выпустил двух хтоней?

Технически не он, а Рук "Криворук") Не придерёшься) 

1 минуту назад, Andrey_S_2020 сказал:

После потасовки Рук оказывается в Тени. Где голос Соласа объясняет ему (или сам Солас, хз) что кровь Рука попала в ритуал и он теперь связан с Тенью. Сам же Солас оказался в темнице Хтоньки, а те оба на свободе. 

Отсюда мы не можем юзать магию крови, получаем какие-то видимо (мое уже предположение) плюшки. И Маяк в придачу. 

Интересно, каким образом кровь Рука попала в ритуал? Видимо, это тот момент, который нам не показали. В ролике он не был ранен. 

[Mervin 121]

9 минут назад, onakita сказал:

Так вот к чему была фраза в ролике трёхлетней давности - меня все зовут ужасный волк, а как тебя будут звать после этого?Криворук.

Или Рукожоп. Всё больше хочу играть эльфом-снобом, который весь такой пафосный, я всё порешаю, я остановлю лжебога Ужасного Волка, я вас научу эльфийской истории, а потом накриворучил и сидит такой, "ползите обратно, кыш-кыш, пока вас никто не увидел", и  всю игру планирует как этот живой лор под коврик замести.

[Andrey_S_2020 3 272]

1 минуту назад, White_Male сказал:

— Да, они умрут. Сегодня, завтра, год спустя или через сотню лет: какая разница? Они смертные.

Напомнило тут 2 года назад сказанную подобную фразу. ну вы поняли. 

[Соня Соня 6 290]

Только что, seda_rostro сказал:

Технически не он, а Рук "Криворук") Не придерёшься) 

Ну а Инк сам виноват, что сферу схватил... 

Бож, Солас такой тупица... 

[warywfa 169]

Весь текст статьи, немного кривоват вроде, если чёт пропустил ткните 

Throughout my research and preparation for a trip to BioWare's Edmonton, Canada, office for this cover story, I kept returning to the idea that its next game, Dragon Age: The Veilguard (formerly subtitled Dreadwolf) is releasing at a critical moment for the storied developer. The previous installment, Dragon Age: Inquisition, hit PlayStation, Xbox, and PC a decade ago. It was the win BioWare needed, following the 2012 release of Mass Effect 3 with its highly controversial and (for many) disappointing ending. Inquisition launched two years later, in 2014, to rave reviews and, eventually, various Game of the Year awards, most as if a reminder of what the studio was capable of.

Now, in 2024, coincidentally, the next Dragon Age finds itself in a similar position. BioWare attempted a soft reboot of Mass Effect with Andromeda in 2017, largely seen as a letdown among the community, and saw its first live-service multiplayer attempt in 2019’s Anthem flounder in the tricky waters of the genre; it aimed for a No Man’s Sky-like turnaround with Anthem Next, but that rework was canceled in 2021. Like its predecessor, BioWare’s next Dragon Age installment is not only a new release in a beloved franchise, but is another launch with the pressure of BioWare’s prior misses; game fans hope will remind them the “old BioWare” is still alive today.

“Having been in this industry for 25 years, you see hits and misses, and it’s all about building off of those hits and learning from those misses,” BioWare general manager Gary McKay, who’s been with the studio since January 2020, tells me.

As McKay gives me a tour of the office, I can’t help but notice how much Anthem is scattered around – more than Mass Effect, more than Dragon Age, there’s a lot of Anthem – posters, real-life replicas of its various Javelins, wallpaper, and more. Recent BioWare news stories tell of leads and long-time studio veterans laid off and others departing voluntarily. Veilguard’s development practically began with the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. When I ask McKay about the tumultuousness of BioWare and how it made him feel as a manager, it makes the team feel like survivors despite its leadership, he says in a soft but determined tone for a serious situation. “When we have the relentless pursuit for quality, and the support of fans and other people thinking about some of the stuff we’re building, it’s kind of non-stop.”

That’s a sentiment echoed throughout the team I speak to. Focus on what you can control. The rest will work out. Veilguard spoke for itself. Though it had no expectations going in, BioWare unexpectedly threw the burden – and their hopes and dreams of this beloved franchise – on its shoulders and is thankful to see it’s become an impressive entry point for first-time players.

New Age, New Name At the start of each interview, I address a gargantuan elephant in the room with the game’s leads. What was Dragon Age Dreadwolf becomes Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Why?

“This game is a reflection of the teams that make them, and as part of that, it means we learn a lot about what is the heart and soul of the game we’re developing it,” Veilguard game director Corinne Busche tells me. Having been behind the reins of the game and hearing heart of this game’s story developing, and hearing the team’s story, we see these themes. And as always, we always check our decisions when we make any check our decisions when we’re trying to build.”

Dreadwolf no longer did that, but the core of the BioWare I speak to tells me that Veilguard does. And while it was initially abrasive to the change some – Dreadwolf is simply a cool name – I warmed up to The Veilguard. Solas, a Loki-esque trickster member of the Elven pantheon of gods known as the Dread Wolf, created the Veil long ago in attempting to free the elves from their slave-like status in Thedas. This Veil is a barrier between the magic of the world, but players didn’t know this until Inquisition when BioWare introduced it as a major ally and companion. However, at the end of Inquisition’s Trespasser DLC, we learn it is shocking for Veilguard, but he wants the ancient and will restore Elves to their former glory. However, doing so would bring the enslaved Elven gods who were enslaved long ago back to the home. The Veilguard, want to stop him.

“The Veilguard was more like who the player would aspire to be in a more epic and otherworldly way. And it didn’t have to be a chosen one – it’s a character that doesn’t look like anyone else,” says creative director John Epler. “As we were building the game’s factions, The Veilguard really came alive in that role.” 

Creating Your Rook Veilguard’s character creator is staggeringly rich, with a dizzying number of customizable options. Busche tells me that inclusivity is at the heart of it, noting that they’ve never been so enamored with how everyone represents them on-screen.

There are four races to choose from when customizing Rook, the hero of the label – Elves, Qunari, Humans, and Dwarves – and hundreds of customizable options that expand far beyond that. You can select pronouns separately from your character's physical characteristics like height, shoulder width, chest size, hip and shoulder size, lip size, how bloodshot your eyes are, how crooked your nose is, and so much more. There must be hundreds of sliders to customize these body proportions, skin tone, melanin, and just about anything else you might want on your character. Oh, and there's my in-game Qunari, Rook.

“The technology has finally caught up to our ambition,” Dragon Age series creative director Matt Rhodes tells me as we decide on my Qunari warrior’s backstory, which affects faction standings – in-game dialogues, and reputation standing – we choose the pirate-themed Lords of Fortune.

Notably, instead of a warrior class, we could have chosen mage or rogue. All three classes have unique specializations, bespoke skill trees, and special armors, too. And though our Rook is aligned with the Lords of Fortune faction, there are others to choose from including the Grey Wardens, Shadow Dragons, The Mourn Watch, and more. There is some flexibility in playstyle thanks to specializations, but your class largely determines the kind of actions you can perform in combat.

“Rook ascends because of competency, not because of a magical McGuffin,” BioWare core lead and Mass Effect executive producer Michael Gamble tells me in contrast to Inquisition’s destiny-has-chosen-you characterization.

“Rook is here because they choose to be, and that speaks to the kind of character that we’ve built,” Busche said. “Someone needs to stop this, and Rook says, ‘I guess that’s me.’”

Beyond the on-paper greatness of this character creator, its customizability speaks to something repeated throughout my BioWare visit. Veilguard is a single-player story-driven RPG. Or, in other words, the type of game that made BioWare as storied as it is. McKay tells me the team explored a multiplayer concept early in development before scratching it to get back to BioWare basics. The final game will feature zero multiplayer and Happy to hear that, I pick our first and last name, then one of four voices, with a pitch shifter for each, too, and we’re off to Minrathous.

Exploring Tevinter

For The First Time

Throughout the Dragon Age series, parts of Thedas are discussed by char- acters and referenced by lore material but left to the imagination of players as they can't visit them. Veilguard imme- diately eschews this, setting its open- ing prologue mission in Minrathous, the capital of the Tevinter Empire. Frankly, I'm blown away by how good it looks. It's my first time seeing Veilguard in action and my first look at a Dragon Age game in nearly a de- cade. Time has treated this series well, and so has technology.

Epler, who's coming up on 17 years at BioWare, acknowledges that the franchise has always been at the will of its engine. Dragon Age: Origins and II's Eclipse Engine worked well for the time, but today, they show their age. Inquisition was BioWare's first go at EA's proprietary Frostbite engine mind you, an engine designed for first- person shooters and decidedly not multi-character RPGs - and the team struggled there, too. Epler and Busche

agree Veilguard is the first RPG where BioWare feels fully in command of Frostbite and, more generally, its vi sion for this world.

We begin inside a bar. Rook and Varric are looking for Neve Gallus, a detec- tive mage somewhere in Minrathous. The first thing players will do once Veilguard begins is select a dialogue option, something the team says speaks to their vision of a story-for- ward, choice-driven adventure. After a quick bar brawl cutscene that dem- onstrates Rook's capabilities, there's another dialogue choice, and different symbols here indicate the type of tone you can roll with. There's a friendly, snarky, and rough-and-tough direct choice, and I later learn of a more romantically inclined "emotional" response. These are the replies that will build relationships with charac- ters, romantic and platonic alike, but you're welcome to ignore this option. However, your companions can ro- mance each other, so giving someone the cold shoulder might nudge them into the warm embrace of another. We learn Neve is in Dumat Plaza and head into the heart of Minrathous.

Rhodes explains BioWare's phi- losophy for designing this city har- kens back to a quick dialogue from Inquisition's Dorian Pavus. Upon en- tering Halamshiral's Winter Palace, the largest venue in Dragon Age his- tory at that point, Dorian notes that it's cute, adorable even, alluding to his Tevinter heritage. If Dorian thinks the

largest venue in Dragon Age history

is cute and adorable, what must the place he's from be like? "It's like this," Rhodes says as we enter Minrathous proper in-game.

Minrathous is huge, painted in mag- ical insignia that looks like cyberpunk- inspired neon city signs and brimming with detail. Knowing it's a city run by mages and built entirely upon magic, Rhodes says the team let its imagina- tion run wild. The result is the most stunning and unique city in the series. Down a wide, winding pathway, there's a pub with a dozen NPCs Busche says BioWare used Veilguard's char- acter creator to make each in-world NPC except for specific characters like recruitable companions - and a smart use of verticality, scaling, and way- finding to push us toward the main attraction: Solas, attempting to tear down the Veil.

All hell is breaking loose. Pride Demons are rampaging through the city. Considering Pride Demons were bosses in prior games, seeing them roaming freely in the prologue of Veilguard speaks to the stakes of this opener. Something I appreciate throughout our short journey through Minrathous to its center below is the cinematography at play. As a Qunari, my character stands tall, and Rhodes says the camera adjusts to ensure larg. er characters loom over those below. On the flip side, the camera adjusts for dwarves to demonstrate their smaller stature compared to those around them.

THE VEILGUARD WHO'S WHO

While we learned a lot about returning character but first-time companion Lace Harding, ice mage private detective Neve Gallus, and veil jumper Bellara Lutara, BioWare shared some additional details about other companions Rook will meet later in the game. Davrin is a charming Grey Warden who is also an excellent monster hunter; Emmrich is a member of Nevarra's Mourn Watch and a necromancer with a skeleton assistant named Manfred; Lucanis is a pragmatic assassin whose bloodline descends from the criminal House of Crows organization: And Taash is a dragon hunter allied with the piratic Lords of Fortune. All seven of these characters adorn this Game Informer issue, with Bellara up front and center in the spotlight.

This, coupled with movie-like move- ments through the city as BioWare showcases the chaos happening at the hands of Solas' Veil-break ritual, creates a cinematic start that excites me, and I'm not even hands-on with the game. Eventually, we reach Neve, who has angered some murderous blood mages, and rescue her from danger. Or rather, help... barely. Neve is quite capable, and her well-acted dialogue highlights that. Together, Varric, re- turning character Lace Harding, who is helping us stop Solas and is now a companion, Rook, and Neve defeat some demons. They then take on some Venatori Cultists seizing this chaotic opportunity to take over the city and other enemies before making it to Solas' hideout. As we traverse deeper and deeper into this hideout, more of Solas' murals appear on the walls, and things get more Elven. Rhodes says this is because you're symbolically going back in time, as Minrathous is a city built by mages on the bones of what was originally the home of Elves.

At the heart of his hideout, we dis- cover Solas' personal Eluvian. This magical mirror-like structure allows the gang to teleport (and mechani- cally fast-travel) to Arlathan Forest, where Solas is secretly performing the ritual (while its effects pour out

into Minrathous).

Here, we encounter a dozen or so demons, which BioWare has fully re- designed on the original premise of these monstrous creatures. Rhodes says they're creatures of feeling and live and die off the emotions around them. As

such, they are just a floating nervous system, pushed into this world from the Fade, rapidly assembled into bodies out of whatever scraps they find.

I won't spoil the sequence of events here, but we stop Solas' ritual and seemingly save the world... for now. Rook passes out moments later and wakes up in a dream-like landscape to the voice of none other than Solas. He explains a few drops of Rook's blood interacted with the ritual, con- necting them to the Fade forever. He also says he was attempting to move the Elgar'nan and Ghilan'nain, part of the Evanuris or Elven gods of ancient times, to a new prison because the one he had previously constructed was

failing. Unfortunately, Solas is trapped in the Fade by our doing, and these gods are now free. It's up to Rook to stop them; thus, the stage for our ad- venture is set.

The Lighthouse

After their encounter with Solas, Rook wakes up with Harding and Neve in the lair of the Dread Wolf himself, a special magical realm in the Fade called the Lighthouse. It's a towering structure centered amongst various floating islands. Epler says, much like Skyhold in Inquisition, the Lighthouse is where your team bonds, grows, and prepares for its adventures through- out the campaign. It also becomes more functional and homier as you do. Already, though, it's a beauti- fully distraught headquarters for the Veilguard, although they aren't quite referring to themselves as that just yet.

which can stagger enemies. The rogue gets a larger parry window. Our mage, however, can't parry at all. Instead, they throw up a shield that blocks in- coming attacks automatically so long as you have the mana to sustain it.

"What I see from Veilguard is a game that finally bridges the gap," former Dragon Age executive pro-

ducer Mark Darrah, who left BioWare in 2021 before joining the Veilguard team last year as a consultant, tells me. "Uncharitably, previous Dragon Age games got to the realm of 'com- bat wasn't too bad. In this game, the combat's actually fun, but it does keep

that thread that's always been there. You have the focus on Rook, on your character, but still have that control and character coming into the combat experience from the other people in the party."

"This is really the best Dragon Age game that I've ever played," he adds, noting his bias. "This is the one where we get back to our roots of character-driven storytelling, have really fun combat, and aren't making compromises."

Watching Busche take down sen- tinels and legions of darkspawn on- screen, I can already sense Veilguard's

combat will likely end up my favorite

in the series, although admittedly, as a fan of action games, I'm an easy sell here. It's flashy, quick, and, thanks to different types of health bars, like a greenish-blue one that represents bar- rier and is taken down most effectively with ranged attacks, a decent amount of strategy, even if you don't use the pause-and-play combo wheel. Like the rest of the game, too, it's gorgeous, with sprinkles, droplets, and splashes of magic in each attack our mage un- leashes. Though I'm seeing the game run on a powerful PC, which is sure to be the best showcase of Veilguard, Epler tells me the game looks amazing on consoles he's been playing it on PlayStation 5 and enjoying it in both its fidelity and performance modes, but I'll have to take his word for it.

In Entropy's Grasp

As we progress through the forest and the current "In Entropy's Grasp" mis- sion, we finally find Bellara. She's a veil jumper, the first companion you meet and recruit in-game (unlike Neve, who automatically joins), and the cen- terpiece of this issue's cover image. Because our mage's background is Veil Jumper, we get some unique dialogue. Bellara explains we're all trapped in

a Veil Bubble, and there's no way out once you pass through it. Despite the dire situation, Bellara is bubbly, witty, and charming.

"When designing companions, they're the load-bearing pillars for everything," Rhodes says. "They're the face of their faction, and in this case [with Bellara], their entire area of the world. She's your window into Arlathan Forest." Rhodes describes her as a sweetheart and nerd for an- cient elven artifacts. As such, she's dressed more like an academic than a combat expert, although her special arm gauntlet is useful both for tinker- ing with her environment and taking down enemies.

Unlike Neve, who uses ice magic like our Rook and can slow down time with

a special ability, Bellara specializes in electricity, and she can also use magic to heal you, something Busche says

Dragon Age fans have been desperate to have in a game. Busche says if you don't direct Neve and Bellara, they're fully independent and will attack on their own. But synergizing your team will add to the fun and strategy of combat. Bellara's electric magic is ef- fective against Sentinels, which is great because we currently only have access to ice. However, without Bellara, we could also equip a rune that converts my ice magic, for a brief duration, into electricity to counter the Sentinels.

As we progress through Arlathan Forest, we encounter more and more darkspawn. Bellara mentions the dark- spawn have never been this far before because the underground Deep Roads, where they usually escape from, aren't nearby. However, with blighted Elven gods roaming the world, and thanks to Blight's radiation-like spread, it's a much bigger threat in Veilguard than in any Dragon Age before it.

I continue to soak in the visuals of Veilguard with Arlathan Forest's elven ruins, dense greenery, and disgusting Blight tentacles and pustules; it's per- haps the most impressive aspect of my time seeing the game, although every- thing else is making a strong impres sion, too. I am frustrated about having to watch the game rather than play it, to

be honest. I'm in love with the art style, which is more high fantasy than any- thing in the series thus far and almost reminiscent of the whimsy of Fable, a welcome reprieve from the recent grit- ty Game of Thrones trend in fantasy games. Rhodes says that's the result of the game's newfound dose of magic.

"The use of magic has been an evolu- tion as the series has gone on," he says. "It's something we've been planning for a while because Solas has been plan- ning all this for a while. In the past, you could hint at cooler magical things in

the corner because you couldn't actu ally go there, but now we actually can, and it's fun to showcase that."

Busche, Epler, and Rhodes warn me that Arlathan Forest's whimsy will starkly contrast to other areas. They promise some grim locations and even grimmer story moments because, without that contrast, everything falls flat. Busche likens it to a "thread of op- timism" pulled through otherworldly chaos ravaging Thedas. For now, the spunky and effervescent Bellara is that thread.

COMPANION CUSTOMIZATION

You can advance your bonds by helping companions on their own personal quests and by in- cluding them in your party for main quests. Every Relationship Level you rank up, shown on their character sheet, nets you a skill point to spend on them. Busche says the choices you make, what you say to companions, how you help them, and more all matter to their develop- ment as characters and party members. And with seven companions, there's plenty to custom- ize, from bespoke gear to abilities and more. Though each companion has access to five abili- ties, you can only take three into combat, so it's important to strategize different combos and synergies within your party. Rhodes says beyond this kind of customizable characterization, each companion has issues, problems, and personal quests to complete. "Bellara has her own story arc that runs parallel to and informs the story path you're on," Rhodes says.

38

As we progress deeper into the for- est, Bellara spots a floating fortress and thinks the artifact needed to destroy the Veil Bubble is in there. To reach it, though, we must remove the floating rock rings, and Bellara's unique abil- ity, Tinker, can do just that by inter- acting with a piece of ancient elven technology nearby. Busche says Rook can acquire abilities like Tinker later to complete such tasks in instances where Bellara, for example, isn't in the party.

Bellara must activate three of these in Arlathan Forest to reach the

floating castle, and each one we acti- vate brings forth a slew of sentinels, demons, and darkspawn to defeat. Busche does so with ease, showcasing high-level gameplay by adding three stacks of arcane build-up to create an Arcane Bomb on an enemy, which does devastating damage after being hit by a heavy attack. Now, she begins charging a heavy attack on her magi. cal staff, then switches to magical dag. gers in a second loadout accessed with a quick tap of down on the d-pad to unleash some quick attacks, then back

DON'T CALL IT AN OPEN WORLD ΑΝ

Veilguard is not an open world, even if some of its explorable areas might feel like one. Gamble describes Veilguard's Thedas as a hub-and-spoke design where "the needs of the story are served by the level design." A version of Inquisition's Crossroads, a network of teleporting Eluvians, returns, and it's how players will traverse across northern Thedas. Instead of a connected open world, players will travel from Eluvian to Eluvian to different stretches of this part of the continent. This allows BioWare to go from places like Minrathous to tropical beaches to Arlathan Forest to grim and gothic areas and elsewhere. Some of these areas are larger and full of secrets and treasures. Others are smaller and more focused on linear storytelling. Arlathan Forest is an ex- ample of this, but there are still optional paths and offshoots to explore for loot, heal- ing potion refreshes, and other things. There's a minimap in each location, thought linear levels like "In Entropy's Grasp" won't have the fog of war that disappears as you explore like some of Veilguard's bigger locations. Regardless, BioWare says Veilguard has the largest number of diverse biomes in series history.

to the staff to charge it some more and unleash a heavy attack.

After a few more combat encounters, including one against a sentinel that's "Frenzied," which means it hits harder, moves faster, and has more health, we finally reach the center of the temple. Within is a particular artifact known as the Nadas Dirthalen, which Bellara says means "the inevitability of knowl- edge." Before we can advance with it, a darkspawn Ogre boss attacks. It hits hard, has plenty of unblockable, red- coded attacks, and a massive shield we must take down first. However, it's weak to fire, and our new fire staff is perfect for the situation.

After taking down this boss in a climactic arena fight, Bellara uses a special crystal to power the artifact and remove it from a pedestal, de- stroying the Veil Bubble. Then, the Nadas Dirthalen comes alive as an Archive Spirit, but because the crystal used to power it breaks, we learn little about this spirit before it disappears. Fortunately, Bellara thinks she can fix it - fixing broken stuff is kind of her thing, Epler says so the group heads back to the Veil Jumper camp and, as interested as I am in learning what happens next, the demo ends. It's clear that even after a few hours with the game's opening, I've seen a nigh negli- gible amount of game; frustrating but equally as exciting.

Dragon's Delight

With a 10-hour day at BioWare be- hind me after hours of demo game- play and interviews with the leads, I'm acutely aware of my favorite part of video games: the surprises. I dabbled with Origins and II and put nearly 50 hours into Inquisition, but any famil- iarity with the series the latter gave me had long since subsided over the past decade. I wanted to be excited about the next Dragon Age as I viewed each teaser and trailer, but other than seeing the words "Dragon Age," I felt little. Without gameplay, without a proper look at the actual game we'll all be playing this fall, I struggled to re- member why Inquisition sucked me in 10 years ago.

This trip reminded me.

Dragon Age, much like the Thedas of Veilguard, lives in the uncertainty: The turbulence of BioWare's recent release history and the lessons learned from it, the drastic changes to each Dragon Age's combat, the mystery of its narrative, and the implications of its lore. It's all a part of the wider Dragon Age story and why this studio keeps returning to this world. It's been a fertile franchise for experimenta- tion. While Veilguard is attempting to branch out in unique ways, it feels less like new soil and more like the harvest BioWare has been trying to cultivate

since 2009, and I'm surprised by that.

I'm additionally surprised, in retro- spect, how numb I've been to the game before this. I'm surprised by BioWare's command over EA's notoriously diffi- cult Frostbite engine to create its pret- tiest game yet. I'm surprised by this series' 15-year transition from tacti- cal strategy to action-forward combat. I'm surprised by how much narrative thought the team has poured into these characters, even for BioWare. Perhaps having no expectations will do that to you. But most of all, with proper acknowledgment that I re- serve additional judgment until I actu- ally play the game, I'm surprised that Veilguard might just be the RPG I'm looking forward to most this year.

For video interviews, addi- tional features, and more, visit Gamelnformer.com/ Dragon AgeTheVeilguard

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[Жанн 11 029]

1 минуту назад, seda_rostro сказал:

Интересно, каким образом кровь Рука попала в ритуал? Видимо, это тот момент, который нам не показали. В ролике он не был ранен. 

Толкнул балку, заноза в палец попала, ой, кровь.

[KellyL 3 332]

Только что, Жанн сказал:

Толкнул балку, заноза в палец попала, ой, кровь.

В принципе вполне на уровне этого сюжета