BioWare enthusiasts might remember that Mass Effect 3 enabled new players to answer a few questions regarding their previous adventures, so it could tailor this third chapter to their preferences. It was a decent concept that allowed those who lost their save files to retain most of their initial choices. However, it wasn’t overly comprehensive and, for instance, failed to let players indicate that they rescued Wrex. Nevertheless, the studio has taken this into account and will be providing more options in its forthcoming Dragon Age Inquisition through a new service called Dragon Age Keep.
Aside from The Keep, Dragon Age Inquisition will also feature something. It’s called a nug.
“Within the Dragon Age Keep, you’ll be able to customize a Dragon Age historical world state to your precise requirements, drawing from the story decisions of Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age 2,” BioWare explained in its FAQ for this new program. “This includes hero attributes, companion details, quest outcomes, and more. Customize as much or as little as you desire… For new players, The Keep will serve as an excellent means to comprehend the people, places, and events that shaped the world leading up to Dragon Age Inquisition.”
Since Inquisition will be available on next-gen consoles, BioWare needed to transfer save state data to the cloud, which is precisely what The Keep accomplishes. “You can fully explore various what-if scenarios and become aware of events and consequences in our past games that you might not have known were possible. You can then start up the previous games and go in search of those moments,” executive producer Mark Darrah explained in The Keep’s announcement. “Even if you don’t go back and replay the previous games, you can still establish that scenario as part of your world state and import it at the beginning of a new Dragon Age Inquisition game to witness the consequences of your actions.”
There will be some form of save importing in addition to The Keep, although BioWare stated that it will provide details on that later. In the meantime, players can sign up for The Keep’s beta, which will commence in early 2014.
It might seem like a considerable wait, but BioWare wants to ensure that its numerous choices and consequences don’t interfere with one another – a problem that has occurred in the past. “An import from Dragon Age Origins to Dragon Age 2 brought along approximately 600 different data points, most requiring complex logic-solving to accurately answer the question of ‘how did the player resolve this choice at the end of the game?'” Darrah explained. “As a result, some current save imports are glitchy, which is our fault, and something we are committed to rectifying. Permanently.”
Dragon Age Keep is scheduled to launch a few months prior to Inquisition in 2014.
