“SPY A GROUP OF ARCHERS ON A RICKETY BEAM AND YOU CAN TAKE THEM DOWN IN ONE BY TARGETING THE STRUCTURE.”A touch of Frostbite for Bioware’s generation-straddling sequel
Hoping to recapture the glory of 2009’s (admittedly divisive) Origins and erase memories of a rushed sequel, Bioware is enlisting the help of DICE’s difference maker: the much-trumpeted Frostbite 3 engine that powers Battlefield 4’s supermodel looks.
“It’s an opportunity with the generation change, as well as the new engine, to revitalise things,” says producer Cameron Lee. “We’ve rebuilt everything from the ground up.” It’s a fresh start for players, too. With dreary hero Hawke gone, you’re able to customise your own fully-voiced avatar and embark on a quest that sees you sniff out the solution to a series of Fade rifts spilling demons into Thedas.
As well as increasing visual fidelity, Frostbite 3 has important applications behind the scenes. Loading has been drastically chopped, and you can now enter caves and mines seamlessly (the overworld is still split into self-enclosed environments Mass Effect-style, mind), and combat comes alive through environmental destruction. “We want players to look at a battle space and think, ‘What opportunities do I have to destroy something?’” says Lee. Spy a group of archers on a rickety beam, for instance, and you can take them down in one fell swoop by targeting the structure. Capable of bigger levels, better looks and more combat complexity, Frostbite might just hold the key to getting Dragon Age back on track.