Mike Laidlaw treated us to another in-depth interview at today’s live developer chat session, featuring an in-depth look at questing in Kirkwall, and our first glimpse of a mage Lady Hawke in action. Join us as we walk through the dev chat and all of the great new features we can look forward to in Dragon Age 2.

Today’s playthrough demo started off in Kirkwall featuring our first ever look at a female Hawke Force mage. Mr. Laidlaw walked Hawke through the lavish streets of Hightown, one of the richer areas of Kirkwall, and home to the city Chantry. As an apostate mage, Hawke didn’t hang around the Chantry too long, but instead headed down into the seedier alleys of Lowtown, to meet up with a certain pirate captain rumored to be waiting in the Hanged Man, Lowtown’s local tavern.

“Is this worth dying for?” — Isabela

Isabela made her on-screen debut with her usual style and grace. Upon entering the Hanged Man, Hawke witnesses a scene between Isabela and a gang of ruffians. Despite their numbers, Isabela dispatches these thugs easily, using her skills as a duelist. Upon Hawke’s approach, Mr. Laidlaw demonstrated DA2′s new conversation wheel, giving us a preview of one of Hawke’s more sarcastic conversation responses:

Isabela: Welcome, and keep your wits about you. You’re nothing but tits and ass to the men about this place, and they won’t hesitate to grab at both.
Hawke: Speaking from experience, are we?

Isabela explains that she has arrived in Kirkwall recently, having sailed here after some time in Denerim. Now that she’s in Kirkwall, she’s being haunted by someone from her past and she’s eager to convince this specter to stop harrassing her. In typical fashion, Isabela has arranged a duel with her former contact in Hightown after dark, and she asks Hawke to accompany her to the scene to make sure there’s no foul play. This, Mr. Laidlaw remarked, is the start of the “Fools Rush In” quest, and the first time we get to see Isabela in action.

Since Hawke needs to complete Isabela’s quest at night, Mr. Laidlaw took this opportunity to show off the new day/night toggle feature on the game’s world map. The world map allows players to switch easily between locations both inside Kirkwall and in the surrounding areas, and also to switch from day to night mode on the fly.

“Never a shortage of idiots who think they can take the streets in the dark.” — Varric

After switching to night mode, Hawke journeys back to Hightown to meet up with Isabela. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like Isabela’s target has made an appearance. Isabela is just starting to get worried when the party is attacked by a gang of thugs. Their fight takes them to the steps of the chantry, where it turns out that Hayder, Isabela’s target, has hired more ne’er do wells to do his bidding. The party dispatches them and heads inside the chantry to confront Hayder himself.

Here it is revealed that Isabela’s argument is about more than personal space in Kirkwall. Hayder accuses Isabela of stealing “the Relic,” an important piece of cargo that their employer is very keen to get his hands on. Isabela replies that she lost the Relic when she liberated a shipment of slaves which their employer, Castille had tasked her to ship to Kirkwall. She refuses to come to terms with Hayder, and the confrontation quickly boils over into Hawke’s first boss fight.

Isabela: I don’t like this.
Varric: “I don’t like this.” That’s right up there with “What could possibly go wrong?”

Apart from giving the player more time to try different tactics, Isabela’s confrontation with Hayder spotlighted the improved visual effects in Dragon Age 2. Spellcasting is beautiful, with vivid colors and various magical damage types to keep gameplay interesting. The locations in Dragon Age 2 have been transformed from Ferelden’s gritty brown fortresses to temples, dungeons and palaces wreathed in shades of scarlet, emerald and blue and adorned with statues, carvings, paintings and other embellishments which show clearly the level of detail BioWare has put into making Kirkwall a vivid and memorable world.

Combat Basics: Combat in Dragon Age 2 looks much more streamlined than it was in Origins. Characters react to their orders instantly, and spells and abilities are much more high-powered, making for faster, bloodier fights. Combat can still be paused at any time, allowing the player to issue tactical orders to their entire team, and to set up special attack combos, but the moment the game is unpaused, combat speeds right back up to full-tilt carnage. Fights are also much more mobile than they were in Origins, making full use of the local environment, and introducing enemies who actually move around the battlefield, choosing new targets or using special abilities.

Combat preparation can give the party an edge before battle even starts, through potions, buffs, and party tactics. As a Force mage, Mr. Laidlaw demonstrated a number of spells Hawke can use to buff allies, or to keep enemies away from weaker party members. Mage enthusiasts from Origins will be happy to know that Force Field, elemental weapons, and Stone Armor are all making a comeback in DA2. In addition, mages are gaining access to some powerful crowd control abilities, like the new Fist of the Maker spell, which knocks down all enemies within the cast radius. A buff’s visual effects fade outside of combat, eliminating awkward visual effects when engaging in conversation and important plot points. Party members can still use potions and injury kits to heal wounds and grant resistances. And the tactics system has made the trip to DA2 largely unchanged, with the same customization options according to enemy type, number, spell/ability or class that were available in Origins.

One of the most exciting new features in combat is the addition of cross-class combos. Designed to replace the mage spell combos of Origins, cross-class combos are a new system designed to involve every member of the party. In practice, they allow the player to perform powerful improved attacks which combine abilities from two or more classes. In today’s demo, Laidlaw used the example of Chain Lightning, which can be upgraded to the spell Chain Reaction, which will inflict six times more damage on a staggered target. Warriors possess the ability to stagger their opponents, so a mage paired with a warrior could unlock that cross-class skill.

Leveling Up: Mr. Laidlaw also used this quest to spotlight the leveling process, which has been completely revamped from Origins. Players can still invest in the basic statistics of strength, constitution, dexterity and so on which have remained consistent from Origins, but now they can also tailor their characters through a vibrant new system of skills, abilities and class specializations. Each class can choose from three class specializations, which offer powerful new play styles. Earlier this week BioWare revealed the Warrior specializations of Templar, Reaver and Berserker which should be familiar to players of Origins, but today offered the first chance to see the new Force Mage specialization in action. Mr. Laidlaw describes Force mages as “exceptionally good at moving people around the battlefield using magic.” They gain natural bonuses to the physical force and elemental damage of their spells, making their magic hit harder and more effectively in combat.

Loot and Treasure: Itemization has changed a bit since Origins. Hawke’s equipment is fully customizable, with slots for helms, robes and armor, and helm graphics can  be toggled on or off depending on player preference. However, Hawke’s companions all come with their own upgradeable armor sets. Instead of giving Aveline a new breastplate, for instance, Hawke can find armor upgrades through quests or purchase them from merchants to grant armor bonuses to her companions. The player can also find or craft armor runes, which provide magical bonuses or elemental resistances. All characters can still equip rings and amulets.

As for Isabela, she may well represent Mr. Laidlaw’s vision in making Dragon Age 2, and his commitment to “keeping the best parts” from Dragon Age: Origins and adding to them to make something even better. Isabela will, at least on the surface, seem the same agile, carefree pirate lass she was in Denerim. But upon digging deeper, Hawke may reveal more of the caring woman Isabela really is: if Hawke asks further, Isabela admits that she took Castille’s escort job for the money, but when she discovered that his cargo held hundreds of slaves – men, women, children and elves fleeing the blight in Ferelden, she snapped. She set the slaves free and fled, only to lose her ship and her crew in a storm off the coast of Kirkwall.

In the Dragon Age 2 demo to be released on 2/22, players will get their own chance to play through some of Isabela’s quest.

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