Dragon Age: Origins Previews
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The mission we looked at takes places early on in the game, after the "origins" section of the game. In addition to potentially branching storylines and multiple endings, Muzyka explained that there will be six distinct different origin stories at the beginning of the game, depending on the specific character you pick. The mission, Tower of Ishal Dungeon, takes place in the tower of the same name, and had us leading a four-character party through several levels of the tower, battling through hordes of orcs before squaring off against a huge, and unsavoury ogre--the level's end boss.
The second is at IGN:
As far as viewing the action goes, if you want, you can move the camera to a top-down isometric point-of-view similar to the view seen in Baldur's Gate. Or you can zoom the camera down and move it around, just like in Neverwinter Nights 2. Meanwhile, tapping on the space bar pauses the action, so you can issue orders to characters. You can also choose not to use pause-and-play, in which case the battle unfolds in real time and looks like an action game. The AI is good enough that if you switch between characters it automatically takes over for whoever you're not controlling.
The third is at GameSpy:
Once our hosts plowed through a few werewolves, though, they found they were willing to talk. Though I'm teetering deadly close to Tudge's boundaries, let's just say that, depending on how you play your cards, your army could just as easily be bolstered by a pack of werewolves. This here is some RPG-logic of the sort that BioWare loves applied to a broader context. Think about it in terms of companion characters: If you start doing evil stuff, you'll attract the brigands and alienate the paladins. While this appears to be going on as well in Dragon Age (one particular companion character bristles when you elect to follow a grisly course of action, while another relished in the potential bloodshed), it looks like this mechanic could affect what your army ends up looking like as the game progresses.
The fourth is at VideoGamer:
While Dragon Age ploughs a separate furrow to established D&D trends, the main three classes seem to work in much the way you'd expect: warriors get stuck in, rogues are good for a bit of preliminary scouting and back-stabbing, while mages can offer all-round support or crowd control - though you need to be a bit careful with area-effect spells. It's quite easy to end up blasting your own party if someone happens to wander over to the enemy you've just targeted with a fireball.
The fifth is at GamePro:
There is great evil in the world of Ferelden, and you will have to fight it every step of the way. Luckily you have a party of four hand-picked adventurers that will battle at your side. With the Pause-and-Play system, combat in Dragon Age: Origins can move at your pace. Want to wade through your enemies in real time, or do you prefer to lay out the tactics for each party member individually? All types of gameplay are possible, and each party member has abilities that make them uniquely fun to play. Combat can be a rush in Dragon Age: Origins, since the A.I. allows your party members to intelligently fight on their own while you control one character. On the other hand, if you prefer the slow tactical combat choices, you can play that way with ease.
And the sixth is at GamesRadar:
Real-time, dungeon crawling combat and pyrotechnic magic are again the order of the day in Dragon Age, albeit through a WoW-style point-and-click, icon-based interface. Interestingly though, spells with a wide blast radius or specific direction of fire can be dragged and dropped onto the play area, with a graphical display showing the area of effect as you do. It's almost like dropping a cut-out shape template onto a Photoshop page. Only with more death, obviously.
