Design by reused assets.
Ah well, previews are always risky, especially with slow burning RPGs.
Reusing assets is not a problem by itself, though. Lots of games do this, and BioWare has freely admitted doing so, for instance with some of their animation routines.
And if you look carefully enough at the various DA:I videos and screenshots, you will recognise assets from DA:O and DA2.
It’s more a question of whether the assets are still suitable and used properly.
And we don’t know if, in what way and to what degree, assets from that multiplayer project ended up in DA:I.
BioWare, and other studios, also reuse assets from the public (or not so public) domain. DA:O, for instance, had some textures that were taken from real-world textiles and a medieval Norwegian church in order to decorate clothes and woodwork. In DA2, Merrill ended up with a ‘Dalish’ statuette that was, originally, an art deco statuette from the 1920’s (and probably plucked from the Internet).
I don’t think that’s a problem per se, and for a historical game, or heavily historically influenced game (from Rome Total War II through Assassin’s Creed to The Witcher’s high-to late medieval / early Renaissance approach) that’s even commendable. One caveat though: It has to be correct (in the case of a strictly historical game) or look like it fits with the style of that particular in-game culture.
Having said that, Bio is pretty bad in copying ‘/ reusing things and keeping it cohesive. The critical video showed (visible roughly between 11:00 and 12:00) a pair of painted archaic Greek kore statues flanking a gate. Pretty odd and looking rather out of place, I might add.
Pictures from a ballscene in DA:I show you and your party suddenly wearing what look like parade uniforms from late 19th / early 20th century Europe.
Okay, disengaging nitpicking mode
