Darkspawn Chronicles sends Dragon Age fans behind enemy lines

BioWare has officially announced Darkspawn Chronicles, a new expansion for Dragon Age: Origins that was first revealed via Gamerscore Blog on Wednesday. No details were available at the time of the leak, but thankfully, Rob Bartel of BioWare has given Gamespot the full scoop. How accurate were Kombo’s baseless, wildly speculative guesses as to what the new content could possibly be?

Pretty accurate, it turns out. Just like we predicted, Darkspawn Chronicles pits players against the Grey Wardens as the evil darkspawn horde, allowing fans to take control of hurlocks, genlocks, ogres and more in a quest to conquer Ferelden. The unexpected expansion will be set in an alternate timeline in which the protagonist of Origins died during the Grey Warden’s ritual of joining, and the wardens don’t stand a chance.

“The lives of the darkspawn are brutish, cruel, and short, but that’s part of what makes them compelling. The archdemon has put you in charge of capturing the city of Denerim and eliminating the threat posed by the Grey Wardens. As a fan of the Dragon Age story, you can’t help but feel powerful as your ogre tears through the defenders’ barricades. When your emissary sets fire to the great tree in the elven alienage, you can’t help but understand the emotional impact that that would have had on that community. When you come to the archdemon’s aid in the final hour and drive your blade through the heart of the Warden King, you can’t help but realize that you have turned history on its head,” Bartel told Gamespot. Sounds epic.


There will be a few changes gameplay-wise, as darkspawn don’t often appreciate the subtleties of a good conversation as much as the other characters in Ferelden. Bartel said “there isn’t a lot of dialogue and talking heads,” and that BioWare is instead focusing on making Darkspawn Chronicles a “powerful visceral experience,” as opposed to “a moving coming-of-age story about an ogre and his pet blight wolf.” Combat and party formation will be quite different as well. “As a hurlock vanguard, you have the ability to recruit thralls–fellow darkspawn–to your cause at any time. If you spot a powerful emissary casting spells off in the distance, you simply select him and bring him into your party and start issuing commands. It’s all very fluid,” Bartel said. “And then, when he’s outlived his usefulness, you simply target him again and a vanguard will walk up and decapitate him in cold blood, clearing up a spot in the party for someone new.”

Chronicles sounds like it’s shaping up to be an extremely fun experience. “There’s nothing like picking up Morrigan, or Alistair, in the ogre’s big blue fist during the final battle, shaking her around, and then punching the proverbial snot out of her. You have access to all the same abilities that they’ve used against you as enemies in the original game. Shrieks sneak and overwhelm; ogres hurl rocks and pound the ground to knock everyone down. Blight wolves howl. Emissaries cast their fireballs. Hurlocks and genlocks man the front lines or fire arrows from afar,” Bartel said. “On top of that, we’ve also added in some puzzle elements to some of the levels where you need to recruit specific types of darkspawn and use their special abilities to meet a particular objective.”

The relative lack of dialogue and the transient nature of combat and party members indicate that Darkspawn Chronicles will be more fast paced than previous iterations of Origins, but how will other aspects of the game be altered? Will there be other permanent party member in addition to the interchangeable ranks of the darkspawn horde? How much interaction will players have with the demonic archdemon? How will equipment, leveling up, items, and all the other minute details that go into a Dragon Age game work? Fans won’t have to wait long to find out, as the Darkspawn Chronicles will be released for Xbox 360 and PC on May 18.

It’s unclear why the announcement has been made so close to the release, though Kombo has contacted BioWare for comment. Pricing has yet to be announced, but this “fun experiment,” as Bartel calls it, is worth keeping an eye on.