Dragon Age 2: “A lot of other choices” make up for single player race, says Dr Ray

By Patrick Garratt

You may only be able to play as a human in Dragon Age 2, but BioWare boss Ray Muzyka is convinced the RPG won’t leave you gasping for choice.

“I think we certainly make up for the fact there’s a little more contraint with the character choice with a lot of other choices,” said the exec, speaking to VG247 at gamescom earlier this month.

“And really, the focus allows a lot of the polish in there too.”

Dragon Age: Origins allowed the player to choice from three races at the start of the plot; humans, elves, dwarves were all available for play.

There’s been something of a kick-back against the “Mass Effect” style of Dragon Age 2’s construction, but Muzyka told us it was necessary to constrain the player in this way because of the game’s basic nature.

“It’s sort of the way the story’s told,” he said. “It’s a personal narrative. It’s a first-person narrative from the perspective of Hawke.”

He added: “As you see in the demo, there are moments when you’re taken out of that first-person narrative a little bit, and you see other characters commenting on what you’ve done and what you hope to do as a character. There’s a major impact as a the Dragon Age universe unfolds.

“But, given that he is a human in this universe, that’s just the way this particular chapter in the Dragon Age universe is built. It’s built around him being a human, and hence your choices are a little more constrained at the beginning, but on the other hand that enables us to do a lot more other cool things as well, in terms of the way the narrative flows, and the other party members that join with you are really cool and interesting and diverse.”

Dragon Age 2 releases in March next year. You can watch the amazing reveal CG here.