Genre: Role-Playing
Publisher: BioWare
Developer: BioWare
Release Date: November 3, 2009

One company that seems to know nearly all there is to know about RPGs is BioWare. The studio has brought us console hits like Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect, and it has even managed to make Sonic relevant with the exceptional DS title, Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood. Now they are prepping their latest opus, Dragon Age: Origins, and we were lucky enough to catch a sneak peek at a new level and a couple of new characters at GDC.

The story woven by Origins is downright epic (it even has a prequel novel to fill in the gaps in the story), but the gist of it goes something like this. Players are granted the title of the Gray Warden and must raise an army to drive back the Blight and the evil beings that it creates, known as Darkspawn. Upon starting the game, players will create their very own unique character and then choose one of six origin stories (hence the game's namesake). The chosen origin confers special benefits and detriments; it's similar to Commander Shepard's background choices in Mass Effect, only more substantial.

The level we were shown at GDC takes place in Redcliffe. Our hero must talk with a local noble in the hopes of recruiting his army to help fight the Blight. The problem is that the master has taken ill, walled himself up in the castle and hasn't been seen in days. To make matters worse, every night, horrible creatures spill forth from the castle gates and attack the town, and the besieged villagers are at their wits' end. They beseech you to help them get to the bottom of this and rid them of their evil tormentors once and for all.

Once you arrive in town, you'll see that things are in bad shape, and you can do as little or as much as you'd like to help the town prep its defenses. One example we saw involved convincing a drunken blacksmith to sober up and arm the troops in return for a promise to search for his missing daughter. This action has tangible benefits later, as the townsfolk who fight alongside you during the next Darkspawn attack will be fitted with decent weapons and leather armor, thus making them a bit tougher for the fight. Other preparations include setting up battlements to create chokepoints and setting traps for the ghouls so they'll be weakened before they even get to your front lines. Of course, if you feel particularly strong and don't really care about the cost in innocent lives, you can always charge right in without any prefight prep and hope for the best.

Throughout the adventure, you are joined by up to three companions, and in our particular demo, the trio consisted of Sten, Morgan and Lillian. Sten is a Kanari, a proud warrior of a savage race who cares only for killing Darkspawn. Morgan is your archetypical seductive sorceress, flinging spells and making others do her bidding by exploiting her feminine wiles. Lillian serves as a rogue and archer, taking it to enemies from afar and sneaking around back for extra damage. These are but a few of the potential party combinations, and BioWare is promising that players should be able to easily assemble a dream team of fighters no matter your play style.

Combat in Origins is extremely reminiscent of KotOR, with attacks that are turn-based yet appear to be happening in real time, thanks to hidden dice rolls. All you have to do is highlight the foe you're after and press attack, and the game takes care of the rest. However, you're not the only one who's fighting, so players will be happy to know that the rest of your team is more than capable of handling themselves without you micromanaging every attack, spell and use of items. There are a number of preset AI behaviors that you can assign to each character, and if none of those suit your needs, players may also examine and tweak the parameters themselves, assuring that your friends only do what you want them to do. For the control freak, though, you can take control of any member of the team at any time and give direct orders.

This option for direct control will be critical for players who wish to exploit the game's combo system. In our demo, we saw Morgan freeze a foe with her Cone of Cold attack, and then Sten ran up and bashed him with the Stone Fist move, instantly shattering the icy baddy. Each combo like this is logged once you discover it, so even if you stumble upon an awesome attack completely by accident, all it takes is a quick scan through the menu to figure out exactly how to execute it once more.

Even during our brief glimpse, it was apparent that Dragon Age: Origins is going to be an incredibly deep and engaging title. BioWare is promising 80+ hours for a single playthrough, and with six different origins to choose from and plenty of other options along the way, truly hardcore players will likely be at this one for months, possibly even years. BioWare has set a very high bar for themselves, but it would appear that they aren't going to have any trouble whatsoever hurdling right over it.