David Gaider, lead writer at BioWare, has described Dragon Age: Origins as a more old skool RPG experience akin to their ”Baldur’s Gate roots.”
Mass Effect was ”more cinematic” whereas Dragon Age is definitely ”a little more traditional.” Developer BioWare has been touting this as a spiritual successor to the cult classic.
”Every BioWare game gets compared to the last one that comes out. And there’s potential that when Dragon Age comes out, it will get compared a little bit to Mass Effect. But I hope that the people who do that keep in mind that we’re going for something that’s a little different here,” Gaider tells Gamasutra in an interview.
”Mass Effect is great – it’s more cinematic – whereas with Dragon Age, we’re definitely going to something that’s a little more traditional. There’s nothing wrong with traditional. We’re looking at our Baldur’s Gate roots.”
”I know they whip that out in the marketing a lot, but Baldur’s Gate II was my first game. I think nothing compares to your first. For me, it was this wonderful experience where we were working with a tried and true engine, which is a great place to be because you can start creating content and test it right from the beginning,” continued the gaming wordsmith.
”We haven’t really been in that situation since. Mass Effect 2 is there now, which is good for the team. Hopefully, for Dragon Age, we’ll get there, too.”
Dragon Age: Origins is being released on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC this October, see the trailer below for the E3 tease.
