Dragon Age 2 imports DAO world

You can't import Dragon Age: Origins characters into Dragon Age 2, but your old saves will shape the world you play in.

Like Mass Effect 2, the outcome of key events will be recorded, as will decisions such as who you saved and who you killed.

"We look at it as importing the world really," BioWare's lead game designer Mike Laidlaw explained to NowGamer.

"I've always seen Dragon Age as a franchise as about more than any one character. It's about entire an entire span of history and the whole world that's affected by what happens. So that was our approach, and the importing stays true to that in the sense that the decisions your Warden made and the person they were all affects Dragon Age II.

"You know," he added, "who's in charge of Ferelden, what happened with the Dwarves, who's running Orzammar? All of these things are reflected and accounted for in Dragon Age II."

Dragon Age 2 has opted for a pre-created main character called Hawke, who will be either female or male depending on your preference. This allows BioWare a tighter grip on the story, although there will be plenty of player freedom within.

BioWare has also limited the use of radial menus in an effort to curb the stop-start nature of Dragon Age 1. Fewer skills and attacks mapped to button pressing make for a more free-flowing experience - it's more eye-catching too, as characters leap and twist and generally kill in style.

Attendees of the Eurogamer Expo 2010 this weekend passed had a chance to see this for themselves.

Dragon Age 2 will be released on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 in March.

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