Wasn't impressed. Demo confirmed some of my fears.
Some definite improvements in some areas, buit a definite step back in others.
Art Style:
Mostly ok. Finally normal-sized armes. No oversized unsymetric shoulderpads. But weapons are still horribly oversized. Especailly the two-handed ones.
Voice acting:
Good. And the facial animations seem to have a greater range and are more fluid. Definite improvement.
Mechanics:
Biggest fail of the demo.
Attribute progression still sucks. Combat is too fast and chaotic and the difficulty of opponents seems to almsot be random.
For example - DA:O, fist fight agaisnt the ogre. Just one ogre, against 4 party members. It was an especially hard fight - the Ogre coudl take out a 4 man party if not carefull. It had several special attacks that were devastating. When the Ogre was charging, you were scrambling like crazy to move out of the way. When he picked up one of your guys, you were cursing yourself because you already used up shield pummel, and were spamming heal spells just to keep that guy alive. Tag-teaming the Ogre was neessary
In the DA2 demo? The Ogre is laughable. It has a lot of HP, but it's not threatening. Aveline alone killed it..without any healing buffs from Bethany. They just kept hitting eachotehr, reapeting the same attack over and over again, untill the Ogre died.
The hurlocks running around were a far bigger problem than the ogre. This is bad.
The other problem - too many enemies. There should be less enemies, but stronger ones. Not just HP pumping, but them being dangerous. The sheer number of enemies makes AoE attacks the bread an butter. Which is bad. Most of the archers attacks are AoE, which is just...silly.
I could go on, but I won't.
I am dissapoint.
I'm not sure if I'll buy the game or not....which is funny. Bio created a rich setting - I WANT to play DA2, to meet the characters and explore the world...unfortunately, I'd rather explore that world trough some other game.
Dragon Age 2 Demo feedback thread
Débuté par
Chris Priestly
, févr. 22 2011 04:38
Retour en haut
#2477
Posté 23 février 2011 - 09:24
demonic_cookie
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PC version
- Dialogue wheel is awesome!
- Flemeth is really awesome!
- Combat with a 2H warrior looks like chunky soup. Especially the legendary part.
- Female Hawke's running animation looks like she is impersonating a very flamboyant gay man.
- The awkward shuffle of doom is still there.
- The volume varies greatly in the cut scenes and in the game. It felt weird >_>
- Dialogue wheel is awesome!
- Flemeth is really awesome!
- Combat with a 2H warrior looks like chunky soup. Especially the legendary part.
- Female Hawke's running animation looks like she is impersonating a very flamboyant gay man.
- The awkward shuffle of doom is still there.
- The volume varies greatly in the cut scenes and in the game. It felt weird >_>
Modifié par demonic_cookie, 23 février 2011 - 09:24 .
#2478
Posté 23 février 2011 - 09:25
Obiyer
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Hey guys, played through the demo on PS3 as 2H warrior, here are my thoughts.
What I liked:
- Like that if I exited the tactics screen, it auto saved the tactics I set.
- No problems on dialogue wheel.
- Being able to move tactics around is cool.
What bothered me:
- Disliked having to hold down the L2 button while choosing the radial options. Please have an option to make it toggle. This is the same with R2 and switching skills, don’t want to have to press R2 then press one of the skill buttons.
- Want an option to zoom out in a battle.
-I had a pathing issue in a fight. It was during the Ogre fight. Aveline was trying to attack the Ogre but all she did was walk towards the Ogre with an enemy blocking her way. But she could have easily walked around him, instead all she did was perpetually walk towards the Ogre. The enemy that was blocking her was attacking me. I had to back up a little bit to get the enemy out of her way. Not a real big deal, but I could see it being one if I didn’t notice what was going on.
To the guys saying it’s too fast paced, are you making sure you’re doing everything you can do? At first I thought it was fast paced too, but then, as I learned about the skills, what to use and such, I found myself pausing a lot to check out how the battle was going and what to do. I think it’s way too soon to pass judgment on that. If you find the action too fast paced maybe the game is simply too easy for you, that you don’t have to pause to do everything you have to do to win.
What I liked:
- Like that if I exited the tactics screen, it auto saved the tactics I set.
- No problems on dialogue wheel.
- Being able to move tactics around is cool.
What bothered me:
- Disliked having to hold down the L2 button while choosing the radial options. Please have an option to make it toggle. This is the same with R2 and switching skills, don’t want to have to press R2 then press one of the skill buttons.
- Want an option to zoom out in a battle.
-I had a pathing issue in a fight. It was during the Ogre fight. Aveline was trying to attack the Ogre but all she did was walk towards the Ogre with an enemy blocking her way. But she could have easily walked around him, instead all she did was perpetually walk towards the Ogre. The enemy that was blocking her was attacking me. I had to back up a little bit to get the enemy out of her way. Not a real big deal, but I could see it being one if I didn’t notice what was going on.
To the guys saying it’s too fast paced, are you making sure you’re doing everything you can do? At first I thought it was fast paced too, but then, as I learned about the skills, what to use and such, I found myself pausing a lot to check out how the battle was going and what to do. I think it’s way too soon to pass judgment on that. If you find the action too fast paced maybe the game is simply too easy for you, that you don’t have to pause to do everything you have to do to win.
Modifié par Obiyer, 23 février 2011 - 09:33 .
#2479
Posté 23 février 2011 - 09:26
Lirea Dragonage
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Granted my laptops not very powerful so I'm playing on low graphics but is that the reason everyone's portrait shows a black face?
#2480
Posté 23 février 2011 - 09:26
Larryboy_Dragon
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First a few good things:
* UI is way better
* The stat allocation screen shows what differences your choices make.
* You can now toggle the action menu open and order all your crew members
* Textures are better
* Models are better
* Animations are better
Now for the hate:
- How does the chick in the battle tutorial walk with boobies that big?
- I hated the 'Mass Effect' wheel way more then I thought I would.
-- The icons are make if feel like Sam and Max.
-- The slot limit really makes dialogue seem dumbed down.
- The world graphics seem worse
- The new ogres look retarded
- Sometimes drakspawn inexplicably burst or explode.
- WTF did they do to Flemeth and why?
- Thief is not the same class
--The battle role of the thief is now 'quick fighter' (dodge, roll, leap).
--The role of stealth flanker is gone. Fuuuuuuuuuuuurk.
-- Skills are gone.
-- Seems like way fewer abilities
-- Rearranging the screen out of lines seems to have been done to hide the fact there are 30-40% less abilities
-- 'Upgrades' are not extra skills
-- Due to the battle style it feels like unlocking moves in an action game rather then building an RPG character
- You have to press 'A' each time you want to swing your weapon!
- You have to press 'A' each time you want to swing your weapon!!
- You have to press 'A' each time you want to swing your weapon!!!
- You have to press 'A' each time you want to swing your weapon!!!1!!1!!!!!
-- Makes it play like a (lame) beat 'em up
-- No longer can pinpoint targets and then switch to another character safe in the knowlage your character will do what you want
-- My thumb actually got tired, just meshing the button
-- WHY DO I WANT TO JUST KEEP MESHING A?!?
* UI is way better
* The stat allocation screen shows what differences your choices make.
* You can now toggle the action menu open and order all your crew members
* Textures are better
* Models are better
* Animations are better
Now for the hate:
- How does the chick in the battle tutorial walk with boobies that big?
- I hated the 'Mass Effect' wheel way more then I thought I would.
-- The icons are make if feel like Sam and Max.
-- The slot limit really makes dialogue seem dumbed down.
- The world graphics seem worse
- The new ogres look retarded
- Sometimes drakspawn inexplicably burst or explode.
- WTF did they do to Flemeth and why?
- Thief is not the same class
--The battle role of the thief is now 'quick fighter' (dodge, roll, leap).
--The role of stealth flanker is gone. Fuuuuuuuuuuuurk.
-- Skills are gone.
-- Seems like way fewer abilities
-- Rearranging the screen out of lines seems to have been done to hide the fact there are 30-40% less abilities
-- 'Upgrades' are not extra skills
-- Due to the battle style it feels like unlocking moves in an action game rather then building an RPG character
- You have to press 'A' each time you want to swing your weapon!
- You have to press 'A' each time you want to swing your weapon!!
- You have to press 'A' each time you want to swing your weapon!!!
- You have to press 'A' each time you want to swing your weapon!!!1!!1!!!!!
-- Makes it play like a (lame) beat 'em up
-- No longer can pinpoint targets and then switch to another character safe in the knowlage your character will do what you want
-- My thumb actually got tired, just meshing the button
-- WHY DO I WANT TO JUST KEEP MESHING A?!?
Modifié par Larryboy_Dragon, 23 février 2011 - 09:29 .
#2481
Posté 23 février 2011 - 09:28
Jedyd
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PC version.
Inferior in all to its predecessor. Dumber, simplified, quickened, less enticing.
When Gods want to punish people – they make them lose self-criticism and publish demos which simply lessen the appeal of the coming game.
Surprises;
1 - Fatalities and combat effects – which in DAO made me push the space bar continuously, take screen shots, and enjoy a 3D superior to Avatar – here make me close my eyes, waiting for them to go away. The very least I expected, was some graphic feast, not barren 2D landscape.
2 – Caricatures of female breasts, and generally – esthetics. I know, the lowest common denominator is what counts in sales, but the grotesque should have only limited appeal. Going the way of fan mod Raina’s Gift Ridiculous Humps? Really, really?
Also… Flemeth as Cruella de Vil with little birds in her hair… In DAO Lelaina used to tell a story about bird’s loose bowels… Pity this sense of humor has to be applied to DA2.
3- Surprising (in the positive sense) is the fact that the “let’s not demand English reading skills from Japanese teen-agers” approach to the “dialogue wheel” seems to actually work quite well – one closes one’s eyes, presses a color, and listens to some speech.
In short;
Not interested in wasting time on aggressive pixels jumping on the screen. Will buy it if trusted friends tell me that the story is worth my eyes aching, and that “this was just a demo”.
Inferior in all to its predecessor. Dumber, simplified, quickened, less enticing.
When Gods want to punish people – they make them lose self-criticism and publish demos which simply lessen the appeal of the coming game.
Surprises;
1 - Fatalities and combat effects – which in DAO made me push the space bar continuously, take screen shots, and enjoy a 3D superior to Avatar – here make me close my eyes, waiting for them to go away. The very least I expected, was some graphic feast, not barren 2D landscape.
2 – Caricatures of female breasts, and generally – esthetics. I know, the lowest common denominator is what counts in sales, but the grotesque should have only limited appeal. Going the way of fan mod Raina’s Gift Ridiculous Humps? Really, really?
Also… Flemeth as Cruella de Vil with little birds in her hair… In DAO Lelaina used to tell a story about bird’s loose bowels… Pity this sense of humor has to be applied to DA2.
3- Surprising (in the positive sense) is the fact that the “let’s not demand English reading skills from Japanese teen-agers” approach to the “dialogue wheel” seems to actually work quite well – one closes one’s eyes, presses a color, and listens to some speech.
In short;
Not interested in wasting time on aggressive pixels jumping on the screen. Will buy it if trusted friends tell me that the story is worth my eyes aching, and that “this was just a demo”.
#2482
Posté 23 février 2011 - 09:29
Ignus Burns
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Eiliestl wrote...
No whats sad is these so-called fans here not really giving this game a chance not really. So hyped one moment and then whining the next when the game or the demo does't meet there expectations. There were things that I did't like about the demo but I've played worse. say Fall Out 3 ,Fall Out NV, Final Fantasy XIII ,Mind Hacks or whatever u call it, to name a few.
Why give the game a chance when I see practically nothing that I like in the demo? I was a fan of DAO but that doesn't mean that I will buy a sequel that seems to be inferior in all aspects. Also, the fact that I have also played worse games doesn't somehow makes DA2 better.
Modifié par Ignus Burns, 23 février 2011 - 09:30 .
#2483
Posté 23 février 2011 - 09:31
Merwanor
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- 543 messages
I really love the demo, even though i hope it is a older build as it got a few issues.
Pros:
+ Excelent voice acting, Kate Mulgrew is as amazing as always and Nicholas Boulton does an awesome job as Hawke, have not tried female hawke yet, but i expect it to be good. When has acting in a bioware game been bad? And finaly no mute hero, and ME style dialog system! hell yeah!
+ Awesome Graphics, The fact that this is medium says alot, can't wait to run it with DX11 features. And the new art style is crazy good, flemeth looks awesome. I feel DA is going the route of comic books, that each game will have a different art directory, as if another artist did a few comics in a series. It's like the kept it dragon age, but with a new look.
+ Combat is very good, animations are excellent and it feel so much more fluid and smooth, very happy with the small touches, like if you are close to an enemy the auto attack is melee style even if you are a mage or a archer.
+The fact that you will get your sister or brother depending what class you are, this gives much more replayability. Wich is what i feared would lack since you don't have all the origiins as the first game did, Though DAO has to much replayability. And the fact that action cutscenes are different if you are mage or any other class. That brings so much more immersion.
Cons:
Not much to complain about, though some nitpicking
- No quiver? why? sorry it might seem petty, but no quiver means no archer character for me. Sad cause archery looks awesome, but without the quiver it looses lots of immersion, like where does the arrows come from?
- If V sync is enabled there is this annoying loading when cutscenes start, even sometimes in the middle of cutscenes. Though hopefully this is just in the demo, or it is a big flaw. Because without V sync its a tear fest.
Pros:
+ Excelent voice acting, Kate Mulgrew is as amazing as always and Nicholas Boulton does an awesome job as Hawke, have not tried female hawke yet, but i expect it to be good. When has acting in a bioware game been bad? And finaly no mute hero, and ME style dialog system! hell yeah!
+ Awesome Graphics, The fact that this is medium says alot, can't wait to run it with DX11 features. And the new art style is crazy good, flemeth looks awesome. I feel DA is going the route of comic books, that each game will have a different art directory, as if another artist did a few comics in a series. It's like the kept it dragon age, but with a new look.
+ Combat is very good, animations are excellent and it feel so much more fluid and smooth, very happy with the small touches, like if you are close to an enemy the auto attack is melee style even if you are a mage or a archer.
+The fact that you will get your sister or brother depending what class you are, this gives much more replayability. Wich is what i feared would lack since you don't have all the origiins as the first game did, Though DAO has to much replayability. And the fact that action cutscenes are different if you are mage or any other class. That brings so much more immersion.
Cons:
Not much to complain about, though some nitpicking
- No quiver? why? sorry it might seem petty, but no quiver means no archer character for me. Sad cause archery looks awesome, but without the quiver it looses lots of immersion, like where does the arrows come from?
- If V sync is enabled there is this annoying loading when cutscenes start, even sometimes in the middle of cutscenes. Though hopefully this is just in the demo, or it is a big flaw. Because without V sync its a tear fest.
#2484
Posté 23 février 2011 - 09:31
DragonRageGT
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RageGT wrote...
There was also a bug thread for the PC version which I can't find so I'll vent it here:
No Hot Key to call Options Menu (Esc) doesn't work and in the small icones it says just () for the hotkey. And there is no where to set it in the Key Binding menu as well.
Tactics are horrible. I cannot set even one right. If I chose health 90% and won't let me choose "drink a potion" so I gave up trying to setup tactics after about 100 attempts in a few runs thru the Demo.
And the "Finishing Moves"... OMG! I can't believe that some people will say that it is better now than it was in Origins. The Ogre killing finishing move was the very first thing that made me wish to start recording vids of DA:O and I know that a huge part of the 1,400,000 viewers of my DA:O vids just love those finishing moves!
I don't think DA2 will come even close to get the same amazing reviews as Origins got.
Forgot the Alt key! Cannot set Alt key to anything! After a few rounds playing Isaac Clark in DS/DS2, I simply can't take my finger from the Alt key. It is the best key for "display objects" since Diablo 2. And worse than not being able to assign it, pressing the Alt key will kinda cancel any command we've given our character and make it just stand idle!
#2485
Guest_Trust_*
Posté 23 février 2011 - 09:31
Guest_Trust_*
Guest_Trust_*
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Bioware, the main thing I'm gonna praise about this demo is the class-specific cutscenes. Thank you guys for putting this in the game. A hundred times, THANK YOU 
#2486
Posté 23 février 2011 - 09:33
Mister Mida
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As a neutral observer of Dragon Age I can say that I like the combat changes. It feels like a natural evolution of the RPG combat system. The stability of the demo however is ridiculously bad. Every time I load I have a chance of the thing crashing on me.
#2487
Posté 23 février 2011 - 09:34
clan4mack
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My feedback is simple ..
Demo = win
Tactics menu on PC version = fail
Can't wait to play past the prologue!
Demo = win
Tactics menu on PC version = fail
Can't wait to play past the prologue!
#2488
Posté 23 février 2011 - 09:37
Falcdragon
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- 25 messages
PC Demo, Played as Rogue then Mage:
- Rogue is fun amazingly enough, a lot more interesting to play than the DAO. Combat was nice a fluid and everything seemed to link together well.
- Mages fun to watch but seems like some of there cool downs have been increased. As such I was never in any risk of running out of Mana, unlike DAO where it always seemed like I'd do so rather quickly.
- Archery seemed like it had a real kick in the pants getting up there with magic.
- Graphics, nice step up not such a fan of the Dark spawn art style though a little to cartoony.
- Interface, not so certain on, it seems all right but with some bits locked down it's hard to say for sure and I don't so far at least see it as much of an improvement on the DAO one.
- Like the VA but it find it a bit confusing to work out which number button is associated with which dialog option, which is rather annoying!
Issues
- Spell Targeting, not being able to target a creature/player with the AOE spells meant they'rd often be well out of the way before it went off, not to hard to get used to though. What was really annoying though was that it made it very hard to target AOE spells in the middle of a big cluster of creatures as they'rd all get in the way. Often this meant when I immediately switched to another character the spell actually didn't get cast because I'd not manged to click on open ground as I thought i had.
- Camera, This probably annoyed me the most it just doesn't zoom out far enough in the demo for the PC, as others have said it made placing AOE spells and abilities rather annoying, especially combined with not being able to target individual creatures with the AOE spells.
Apart from that the demo was annoyingly unstable until I switched off a few graphics settings and disabled v-sync. Not the best look ever for a promotional demo.
Still I enjoyed it and am looking forward to the 11th, now time to go book some leave off at work
- Rogue is fun amazingly enough, a lot more interesting to play than the DAO. Combat was nice a fluid and everything seemed to link together well.
- Mages fun to watch but seems like some of there cool downs have been increased. As such I was never in any risk of running out of Mana, unlike DAO where it always seemed like I'd do so rather quickly.
- Archery seemed like it had a real kick in the pants getting up there with magic.
- Graphics, nice step up not such a fan of the Dark spawn art style though a little to cartoony.
- Interface, not so certain on, it seems all right but with some bits locked down it's hard to say for sure and I don't so far at least see it as much of an improvement on the DAO one.
- Like the VA but it find it a bit confusing to work out which number button is associated with which dialog option, which is rather annoying!
Issues
- Spell Targeting, not being able to target a creature/player with the AOE spells meant they'rd often be well out of the way before it went off, not to hard to get used to though. What was really annoying though was that it made it very hard to target AOE spells in the middle of a big cluster of creatures as they'rd all get in the way. Often this meant when I immediately switched to another character the spell actually didn't get cast because I'd not manged to click on open ground as I thought i had.
- Camera, This probably annoyed me the most it just doesn't zoom out far enough in the demo for the PC, as others have said it made placing AOE spells and abilities rather annoying, especially combined with not being able to target individual creatures with the AOE spells.
Apart from that the demo was annoyingly unstable until I switched off a few graphics settings and disabled v-sync. Not the best look ever for a promotional demo.
Still I enjoyed it and am looking forward to the 11th, now time to go book some leave off at work
#2489
Posté 23 février 2011 - 09:38
hobbit of the shire
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Yay, finally got through it!! My thoughts:
Story and Characters:
The family story is somewhat believable. Bethany is neat but Carver got on my nerves from the beginning. What I'd really like to know is what this family is, to have a mage, warrior and whatever Hawke is that are capable of battling darkspawn. I suppose that'd be explained in the game, but I just found it out of the blue weird. The mother... I read some people were wondering about her lowcut blouse....lol. That shocked me a bit first, but then I realized that the mother isn't that old. I mean, Hawke is like... what 30-ish? In that era, she could be in her mid-forties or older. So not out of the question, but I'd suppose someone running for their lives would wear something a bit more ... protective. Great to see Flemeth back. Love Kate Mulgrew's voice. Wow, she had some major plastic surgery (lol). She looks awesome and evil... hope to see more of her. I didn't particularly understand how Hawke got involved with Isabela. Did I miss a cutscene? Seems a bit shady to me and not someone I'd want to hang around with as soon as I just saved my hide from darkspawn. So I didn't understand that raider bit. What is with Isabela's clothing? She's about to fall out of that shirt. Looks like they've blatantly made the female clothing more scanty... kinda reminds me of The Witcher. Ugh. Overall, I wasn't that impressed with the story and characters. The DA:O intro is much more interesting. The only thing that stands out is Flemeth. Oh, and this demo really reinforced my dislike for the Chantry! Oooh, I'm gonna love hating the Chantry.
Combat:
Not too fond of the combat. Games nowadays are turning more and more like martial arts. But this is a Medieval (European) Fantasy RPG. I wanna see combat that knights, rogues and wizard-types do, not some smooth flying kung-fu type combat à la Matrix. I'm losing the sense of the Fantasy genre with this sort of oriental-type combat. I mean it looks cool, but it's out of place. The combat definitely looks cooler, but every single spell is so CG'ed up that even a level 1 move looks epic and supernatural. I'm not feeling like I'm in combat anymore. It feels like I am pressing a button and then an auto-attack sequence begins and magic happens. It's not visceral anymore, but flashy.
Controls:
About the same as Origins. It's easier in general for the warrior and rogue. It's a pain for the mage because it's impossible to target. The target goes from a whitish color to a light yellow colour. I can barely see the difference so it's very difficult to target. I have to hover slowly and watch for the target to change colour. The quickbar is interesting. Like the idea of a quick heal/stamina boost. This may solve the dilemma of poultices, which always drove me nuts (which to use). Quickbar needs to be larger. Why are the buttons so tiny? I understand the desire to make it more full-screen, but I need to be able to see all my options.
Cutscenes/conversations:
What's with the pauses between conversations? It's irritating. It doesn't flow. It should be like a TV show, where the change between 2 camera FOVs is not jarring. Plus, there are TOO many cutscenes. You walk a few steps and then a cutscene pops up. It's like I'm watching a movie instead of playing a game. I don't feel like I'm IN the game. Why are the text conversations so short? First of all, the text spoken doesn't even match that of what you click on, and what you click on is so short that Hawke must have the verbal capacity of a 4-year old. Can Hawke actually speak a single sentence more than 4 words long? The text chosen must be the same as what he/she says in the cutscene, and the written text needs to be long enough to get the gist of what he/she is intending to say. When I was playing, what Hawke said was totally different from what I though that text option meant. Also, it took me a whole to figure out that the text to the left of the circle icon is actually something you can click on to choose more options!!!
Graphics:
Pretty nice. And it runs smoothly on Very High setting just as well as DA:O. Don't particularly like the dimming of the screen whenever a cutscene pops up. The transition from regular view to cutscene isn't smooth. Colours could be more vibrant throughout the game. The only thing vibrant are the crazy combat effects. Even if it is a warzone, there should be some colour. The camera angle is good.
Audio:
Why was the narrator so loud? Flemeth voice acting cool. Orlesian accents (dark-haired Chantry person) rub me the wrong way. Voice-acting decent. Having a voiced-over Hawke is quite different. I wonder if I'll feel as one with the character anymore, since, obviously, Hawke's voice isn't what MY character's voice is. :-D
classes:
I like mage a lot, followed by warrior. Rogue felt kinda weak. Mage was pretty powerful even right at the beginning, which is something I can't say that happens normally in RPGs. Although with the long range of the spells now, a mage feels so out of the fray. But I suppose that is a good thing.
Gameplay:
Why can't I select all party members anymore? Argh! It's very difficult to control who attacks what anymore. I should be able to select all party members and target them at Mr. Ogre. Instead, they are randomly attacking whoever, and it's not as easy to locate friends/foes in the thick of things as it was before in DA:O.
Bugs:
Varric stopped attacking in the Chantry. Dunno why. Couldn't target anything and then finally only managed to get him to whack people with his crossbow. Was he out of arrows or something???
Overall impression:
DA2 sorta feels very mainstream. I think the combat, conversations, interactions, story is more simplified. I sure do hope that the whole world is as rich as DA:O. While I've had my limit with the endless codexes, at least they were there if I ever wanted to read them. I also like having extended conversations with NPCs. I hope the world will be mature, in the sense that it covers themes that are complex and difficult. So far, my impression of DA2 is that it is superficial. So, I still will get DA2 at some point, but I'm not all that hyped up about it anymore.
Story and Characters:
The family story is somewhat believable. Bethany is neat but Carver got on my nerves from the beginning. What I'd really like to know is what this family is, to have a mage, warrior and whatever Hawke is that are capable of battling darkspawn. I suppose that'd be explained in the game, but I just found it out of the blue weird. The mother... I read some people were wondering about her lowcut blouse....lol. That shocked me a bit first, but then I realized that the mother isn't that old. I mean, Hawke is like... what 30-ish? In that era, she could be in her mid-forties or older. So not out of the question, but I'd suppose someone running for their lives would wear something a bit more ... protective. Great to see Flemeth back. Love Kate Mulgrew's voice. Wow, she had some major plastic surgery (lol). She looks awesome and evil... hope to see more of her. I didn't particularly understand how Hawke got involved with Isabela. Did I miss a cutscene? Seems a bit shady to me and not someone I'd want to hang around with as soon as I just saved my hide from darkspawn. So I didn't understand that raider bit. What is with Isabela's clothing? She's about to fall out of that shirt. Looks like they've blatantly made the female clothing more scanty... kinda reminds me of The Witcher. Ugh. Overall, I wasn't that impressed with the story and characters. The DA:O intro is much more interesting. The only thing that stands out is Flemeth. Oh, and this demo really reinforced my dislike for the Chantry! Oooh, I'm gonna love hating the Chantry.
Combat:
Not too fond of the combat. Games nowadays are turning more and more like martial arts. But this is a Medieval (European) Fantasy RPG. I wanna see combat that knights, rogues and wizard-types do, not some smooth flying kung-fu type combat à la Matrix. I'm losing the sense of the Fantasy genre with this sort of oriental-type combat. I mean it looks cool, but it's out of place. The combat definitely looks cooler, but every single spell is so CG'ed up that even a level 1 move looks epic and supernatural. I'm not feeling like I'm in combat anymore. It feels like I am pressing a button and then an auto-attack sequence begins and magic happens. It's not visceral anymore, but flashy.
Controls:
About the same as Origins. It's easier in general for the warrior and rogue. It's a pain for the mage because it's impossible to target. The target goes from a whitish color to a light yellow colour. I can barely see the difference so it's very difficult to target. I have to hover slowly and watch for the target to change colour. The quickbar is interesting. Like the idea of a quick heal/stamina boost. This may solve the dilemma of poultices, which always drove me nuts (which to use). Quickbar needs to be larger. Why are the buttons so tiny? I understand the desire to make it more full-screen, but I need to be able to see all my options.
Cutscenes/conversations:
What's with the pauses between conversations? It's irritating. It doesn't flow. It should be like a TV show, where the change between 2 camera FOVs is not jarring. Plus, there are TOO many cutscenes. You walk a few steps and then a cutscene pops up. It's like I'm watching a movie instead of playing a game. I don't feel like I'm IN the game. Why are the text conversations so short? First of all, the text spoken doesn't even match that of what you click on, and what you click on is so short that Hawke must have the verbal capacity of a 4-year old. Can Hawke actually speak a single sentence more than 4 words long? The text chosen must be the same as what he/she says in the cutscene, and the written text needs to be long enough to get the gist of what he/she is intending to say. When I was playing, what Hawke said was totally different from what I though that text option meant. Also, it took me a whole to figure out that the text to the left of the circle icon is actually something you can click on to choose more options!!!
Graphics:
Pretty nice. And it runs smoothly on Very High setting just as well as DA:O. Don't particularly like the dimming of the screen whenever a cutscene pops up. The transition from regular view to cutscene isn't smooth. Colours could be more vibrant throughout the game. The only thing vibrant are the crazy combat effects. Even if it is a warzone, there should be some colour. The camera angle is good.
Audio:
Why was the narrator so loud? Flemeth voice acting cool. Orlesian accents (dark-haired Chantry person) rub me the wrong way. Voice-acting decent. Having a voiced-over Hawke is quite different. I wonder if I'll feel as one with the character anymore, since, obviously, Hawke's voice isn't what MY character's voice is. :-D
classes:
I like mage a lot, followed by warrior. Rogue felt kinda weak. Mage was pretty powerful even right at the beginning, which is something I can't say that happens normally in RPGs. Although with the long range of the spells now, a mage feels so out of the fray.
But I suppose that is a good thing.Gameplay:
Why can't I select all party members anymore? Argh! It's very difficult to control who attacks what anymore. I should be able to select all party members and target them at Mr. Ogre. Instead, they are randomly attacking whoever, and it's not as easy to locate friends/foes in the thick of things as it was before in DA:O.
Bugs:
Varric stopped attacking in the Chantry. Dunno why. Couldn't target anything and then finally only managed to get him to whack people with his crossbow. Was he out of arrows or something???
Overall impression:
DA2 sorta feels very mainstream. I think the combat, conversations, interactions, story is more simplified. I sure do hope that the whole world is as rich as DA:O. While I've had my limit with the endless codexes, at least they were there if I ever wanted to read them. I also like having extended conversations with NPCs. I hope the world will be mature, in the sense that it covers themes that are complex and difficult. So far, my impression of DA2 is that it is superficial. So, I still will get DA2 at some point, but I'm not all that hyped up about it anymore.
Modifié par hobbit_of_the_shire, 23 février 2011 - 09:39 .
#2490
Posté 23 février 2011 - 09:38
Sons of Horus
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Just finished the Demo on the pc. Loved it. Cant wait to get my hands on the Game .
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#2491
Posté 23 février 2011 - 09:39
tiereon
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still playing on the PC this time as a rogue, the backstab seems to make the camera get a little crazy, as it can't seem to focus, and AOE attacks seem to be needed to focus on enemies instead of an area which in my experience lead to some pixle hunting as I had to go from a torso to they're legs/feet to let me target them, but on the higher graphic settings game looks amazing
#2492
Posté 23 février 2011 - 09:41
Sjofn
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Oh right! I forgot. The tactics UI for PC is horrible. I hope it's better in the release version, because the way it is in the demo (barely functional, plus it is stupid about some abilities, like deciding a scrapper warrior would never use pummel to stun someone ... for ... some ... reason?) is really, REALLY off-putting.
For balance, I like the ability UI fine and I like that you cut a bunch of abilities in order to focus on making the ones you kept more awesome. I don't need 800 abilities, 6 really great ones'll do me just fine, so I am pleased with that particular change. I don't see it as dumbing down at all, more like sprucing up and getting rid of silly clutter.
For balance, I like the ability UI fine and I like that you cut a bunch of abilities in order to focus on making the ones you kept more awesome. I don't need 800 abilities, 6 really great ones'll do me just fine, so I am pleased with that particular change. I don't see it as dumbing down at all, more like sprucing up and getting rid of silly clutter.
#2493
Posté 23 février 2011 - 09:42
mrjohnchimpo
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this has turned into the worst thread ever.
#2494
Posté 23 février 2011 - 09:42
Gosuchobo
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I played the PC Demo and boy was I disapointed. What a crappy game. DAO was my favorite PC game in a long time and I cannot believe that with one sequel you completely destroyed the franchise...
Lets look at the why:
- Comic look doesn't fit with the harsh atmosphere the first game created. Ok I knew this was coming. Still don't have to like it.
- Background and landscape. Was there one? Honestly this has to be the worst landscape I have seen in a video game since ... well for a long time. When I first saw screenshot for da2 I assumed they only showed character models and therefor left out the background. But there actually is none... And yes I the graphics cranked up all the way...
- Tunneling levels. The path my party had to walk was so narrow, that even the party refused to move on most of the time...
- Combat system: Too over the top. I do like the idea of creating a more dynamic combat system than in dao. But the animations for this along with the comic look just remind me of a bad anime movie. Didn't get a single finisher either. Just cut everything in half. Loved the finishers in the first part. Why get rid of all the good stuff?
- No atmosphere. Like at all. Wave after wave of mindless zombies with the rescue an medival german heidi ( I can say this, I am german). Didn't even care much that my brother died. Since he didn't want to go where I told him to, I was actually kinda glad the shmug was gone...
- Controls where more or less like the first game. Just not really working. Whenever I would switch characters my allies would stop fighting an run to my selected ally. Well at least they were finally moving... Probably something to do with the tactics. But I didn't even bother looking into those since:
- The game was so awfully easy. Go into combat. And go have a smoke. When you come back. You'll have won...
- Loading. You will see this message A LOT. Even during conversations? I mean come on... And no, for ****ty graphics like this I am not updating my one year old computer...
I LOVED all previous bioware games and cannot believe what I saw yesterday. First time bioware let me down. I preordered this title like half a year ago and am seriously thinking about canceling my preorder...
I beg you. Don't release this garbage...
Lets look at the why:
- Comic look doesn't fit with the harsh atmosphere the first game created. Ok I knew this was coming. Still don't have to like it.
- Background and landscape. Was there one? Honestly this has to be the worst landscape I have seen in a video game since ... well for a long time. When I first saw screenshot for da2 I assumed they only showed character models and therefor left out the background. But there actually is none... And yes I the graphics cranked up all the way...
- Tunneling levels. The path my party had to walk was so narrow, that even the party refused to move on most of the time...
- Combat system: Too over the top. I do like the idea of creating a more dynamic combat system than in dao. But the animations for this along with the comic look just remind me of a bad anime movie. Didn't get a single finisher either. Just cut everything in half. Loved the finishers in the first part. Why get rid of all the good stuff?
- No atmosphere. Like at all. Wave after wave of mindless zombies with the rescue an medival german heidi ( I can say this, I am german). Didn't even care much that my brother died. Since he didn't want to go where I told him to, I was actually kinda glad the shmug was gone...
- Controls where more or less like the first game. Just not really working. Whenever I would switch characters my allies would stop fighting an run to my selected ally. Well at least they were finally moving... Probably something to do with the tactics. But I didn't even bother looking into those since:
- The game was so awfully easy. Go into combat. And go have a smoke. When you come back. You'll have won...
- Loading. You will see this message A LOT. Even during conversations? I mean come on... And no, for ****ty graphics like this I am not updating my one year old computer...
I LOVED all previous bioware games and cannot believe what I saw yesterday. First time bioware let me down. I preordered this title like half a year ago and am seriously thinking about canceling my preorder...
I beg you. Don't release this garbage...
Modifié par Gosuchobo, 23 février 2011 - 09:43 .
#2495
Posté 23 février 2011 - 09:51
da0Xeffect
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I think a lot of people are forgetting this is just a demo and I believe someone said this isn't exactly a new demo. Audio issues, visuals, and such aren't exactly going to be like that. In my opinion, I play games for story first and then gameplay.
The small part of the story I got from the beginning got me hooked (mainly Flemeth's dialogue, which was PERFECT!!!!). Gameplay was a bit fast for me and I like fast but not enough to turn me away. I can't see how it was boring though. In DA:O you send your character to battle one enemy, with setting up skills and buffs, etc. This just makes it faster. My mind is still blown by those comments.
The demo didn't give us much on how the inventory so I can't say anything bad about it.
Does everyone also know it was locked on Normal difficulty, right? Judging the ogre's difficulty from that isn't necessarily fair.
Everyone has their right to cancel a preorder if they don't like the demo but it seems a little extreme at the sight of a demo that doesn't give you your full arsenal.
To rate sequels of games, I use Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction and Mercenaries 2. If you've played those games you will know that the second one sucked so badly, you wish you could send it back to hell. From what I've seen in DA:2, it is nowhere near the 'suckiness' of Mercs 2 and is just as good, if not better, than DA:O
The small part of the story I got from the beginning got me hooked (mainly Flemeth's dialogue, which was PERFECT!!!!). Gameplay was a bit fast for me and I like fast but not enough to turn me away. I can't see how it was boring though. In DA:O you send your character to battle one enemy, with setting up skills and buffs, etc. This just makes it faster. My mind is still blown by those comments.
The demo didn't give us much on how the inventory so I can't say anything bad about it.
Does everyone also know it was locked on Normal difficulty, right? Judging the ogre's difficulty from that isn't necessarily fair.
Everyone has their right to cancel a preorder if they don't like the demo but it seems a little extreme at the sight of a demo that doesn't give you your full arsenal.
To rate sequels of games, I use Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction and Mercenaries 2. If you've played those games you will know that the second one sucked so badly, you wish you could send it back to hell. From what I've seen in DA:2, it is nowhere near the 'suckiness' of Mercs 2 and is just as good, if not better, than DA:O
#2496
Posté 23 février 2011 - 09:53
sesheta255
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Played the pc version.
I can't say I'm excited about the game, yet with DAO I was counting down the days (not to mention hours, minutes, and seconds) until release. The more I see of DA2 the less excited I get. I'm not a fan of the combat and prefer the Origins combat, but I guess I'll get used to it.
A couple of things I found annoying :
1. I found that it was near impossible to keep track of health and stamina/mana levels during combat, due to the speed, and because my portrait seemed to be too small and tucked away in the corner of the screen. I dread playing on higher difficulty because of it. I prefer the portrait styles in Origins. But that may also be because I'm old and unco, lol.
2. Sound. Even with both the music and effects disabled, and the dialogue audio turned up to full, along with my speakers, I had dificulty actually hearing the characters when they were speaking which was annoying. I can't comment on the VA because I couldn't hear it, and having played through the demo with each class I still don't know what female Hawke sounds like.
3. Graphics. Once again I preferred the Origins graphics. Not a fan of the new looks sported by Flemeth and Isabella either. They obviously both found the mythical fountain of youth.
Am I disappointed? Yes
Will I still get the game? Yes, in the hopes that it will have an awesome story to make me forget about all the things I don't like.
I can't say I'm excited about the game, yet with DAO I was counting down the days (not to mention hours, minutes, and seconds) until release. The more I see of DA2 the less excited I get. I'm not a fan of the combat and prefer the Origins combat, but I guess I'll get used to it.
A couple of things I found annoying :
1. I found that it was near impossible to keep track of health and stamina/mana levels during combat, due to the speed, and because my portrait seemed to be too small and tucked away in the corner of the screen. I dread playing on higher difficulty because of it. I prefer the portrait styles in Origins. But that may also be because I'm old and unco, lol.
2. Sound. Even with both the music and effects disabled, and the dialogue audio turned up to full, along with my speakers, I had dificulty actually hearing the characters when they were speaking which was annoying. I can't comment on the VA because I couldn't hear it, and having played through the demo with each class I still don't know what female Hawke sounds like.
3. Graphics. Once again I preferred the Origins graphics. Not a fan of the new looks sported by Flemeth and Isabella either. They obviously both found the mythical fountain of youth.
Am I disappointed? Yes
Will I still get the game? Yes, in the hopes that it will have an awesome story to make me forget about all the things I don't like.
#2497
Posté 23 février 2011 - 09:55
N30795
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Months ago, I played an early version of the game at Paris Game Week, on a PS3. It was really disappointing. The graphics were ugly, the game nearly crashed when Flemeth appeared for the second time, the textures of Wesley's armor were green and the Korcari Wilds were plain bland. I spend the whole time bashing X, with very short pauses, watching bewildered my character switching a sword twice her size. The nice EA lady on the stand noticed me and went for a little chat, I clearly remember telling her: "It's not Dragon Age. There's a lot of work to do.".
I went directly on the Social and told my fellows on the French board how "betrayed" I felt. It seemed like a Dragon-Age-ish game, yes, but everything else was foreign. Change is hard to cope with.
Nevertheless I braced myself and decided to follow the game marketing campaign. I think it was the right decision. The game slightly began to appeal to me... well, because it's a BioWare game. And I've been playing BioWare games since Baldur's Gate. I pre-ordered the Signature Edition in the United Kindgom (price, original voice over...) and I grew very excited about it.
Yesterday, I downloaded the PC version. I nearly bounced all the day thinking about it. My laptop took hours to open the file (I was really angry!), but I managed to install it, without bugs. And I played.
I'm really happy with this demo, when the PGW one was ridiculously outrageous. I feel like I was back in the Dragon Age universe - graphics are still not perfect (at least Weasley's armor is not green any more), with this cartoon-ish feeling we've been seeing on other trailers, but they're so much better than Origins one.
Too bad that demo build is far from perfect, but I expected it. My (female) character walks so slowly (with bugs and all), that I feel like hitting my head against the wall. There's all this "loading...", light freezes between cutscenes, crappy AI doing everything but what I want (Bethany fire-balling an empty space, characters refusing to take potions or standing numbly, doing nothing, while in a middle of a battlefield), and the fact that it's god damn short !
But I enjoyed it, I guess that's what matters in the end. So thanks BioWare.
Ps: The darkspawns, though, are ugly.
Ps2: And Florence and the Machine for credit song ? That, wooow!
I went directly on the Social and told my fellows on the French board how "betrayed" I felt. It seemed like a Dragon-Age-ish game, yes, but everything else was foreign. Change is hard to cope with.
Nevertheless I braced myself and decided to follow the game marketing campaign. I think it was the right decision. The game slightly began to appeal to me... well, because it's a BioWare game. And I've been playing BioWare games since Baldur's Gate. I pre-ordered the Signature Edition in the United Kindgom (price, original voice over...) and I grew very excited about it.
Yesterday, I downloaded the PC version. I nearly bounced all the day thinking about it. My laptop took hours to open the file (I was really angry!), but I managed to install it, without bugs. And I played.
I'm really happy with this demo, when the PGW one was ridiculously outrageous. I feel like I was back in the Dragon Age universe - graphics are still not perfect (at least Weasley's armor is not green any more), with this cartoon-ish feeling we've been seeing on other trailers, but they're so much better than Origins one.
Too bad that demo build is far from perfect, but I expected it. My (female) character walks so slowly (with bugs and all), that I feel like hitting my head against the wall. There's all this "loading...", light freezes between cutscenes, crappy AI doing everything but what I want (Bethany fire-balling an empty space, characters refusing to take potions or standing numbly, doing nothing, while in a middle of a battlefield), and the fact that it's god damn short !
But I enjoyed it, I guess that's what matters in the end. So thanks BioWare.
Ps: The darkspawns, though, are ugly.
Ps2: And Florence and the Machine for credit song ? That, wooow!
#2498
Posté 23 février 2011 - 09:56
WinterWolf101
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Played the PC version:
Overall was really impressed, however two things were a little bit annoying. Firstly: aoe spells which cannot be targeted at an enemy. Personally I would change it back to what it was like in origins.
Secondly, when playing as a rogue, the default closing animation where the rogue does a horizontal spin off the ground towards the target is a little bit buggy. If the target is moving away from rogue at the same time, the rogue is stuck in what I call "spin shuffling", as the rogue continues to do this animation, trying to catch up to the moving target. If the target is also slowed, it looks even more comical "Noooooooo you moved one centimeter away from where you just were, must spin again!"
Overall though, the demo was really impressive. Huge props for the way you guys have redesigned the mage and all the classes were fun to play
Overall was really impressed, however two things were a little bit annoying. Firstly: aoe spells which cannot be targeted at an enemy. Personally I would change it back to what it was like in origins.
Secondly, when playing as a rogue, the default closing animation where the rogue does a horizontal spin off the ground towards the target is a little bit buggy. If the target is moving away from rogue at the same time, the rogue is stuck in what I call "spin shuffling", as the rogue continues to do this animation, trying to catch up to the moving target. If the target is also slowed, it looks even more comical "Noooooooo you moved one centimeter away from where you just were, must spin again!"
Overall though, the demo was really impressive. Huge props for the way you guys have redesigned the mage and all the classes were fun to play
#2499
Posté 23 février 2011 - 09:59
gunpowder saint
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WHAT HAPPENED TO ROLE PLAY!?
I don't want to HAVE to take an "Optimum" character class, or party configuration because I want to win, but because I WANT TO ROLE PLAY.
That's why I destroyed the Anvil of the Void whenever I give the King to Bhelen. Because I don't trust him as a strong leader and king but I DO NOT trust him with a tool such as the Anvil of the Void.
I also believe that Mages are weak creatures caging themselves in the tower, and when their little cage began to burn and catch fire they could do nothing but watch themselves and eachother burn. That's why I always side with the Templar. The mages deserved to burn in the cage they built. >.> and because I love Templar lol
but anyway I feel like ALL of this was stripped ya know?
Also Sten with a Bow and Arrow is hilarious :]
I don't want to HAVE to take an "Optimum" character class, or party configuration because I want to win, but because I WANT TO ROLE PLAY.
That's why I destroyed the Anvil of the Void whenever I give the King to Bhelen. Because I don't trust him as a strong leader and king but I DO NOT trust him with a tool such as the Anvil of the Void.
I also believe that Mages are weak creatures caging themselves in the tower, and when their little cage began to burn and catch fire they could do nothing but watch themselves and eachother burn. That's why I always side with the Templar. The mages deserved to burn in the cage they built. >.> and because I love Templar lol
but anyway I feel like ALL of this was stripped ya know?
Also Sten with a Bow and Arrow is hilarious :]
#2500
Posté 23 février 2011 - 10:00
rez368
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Just finished playing on pc everything max. Seems to run fairly smoothly apart from one cutscene just after Flemeth changes from a dragon to a human. Graphically it looks better but not a huge difference from DA1. The ground textures in the first part stood out to me and I didn't really mind the whole barren look apart from the cheap looking shrubs around the place cos they just didn't seem to fit in. Draw distance was good adding to the feel of having room around you even though it's a linear path. It just seems to me that they've graphically improved in some spots but left others untouched. Loved the combat and speed of movement it really feels much more frantic. Now being a dual handed weilder doesn't seem so boring. Spells and spell effects are awesome. Voice acting seems good and love the whole mass effect approach to conversations. Also like the improvements with the skills tree and interface. Like someone mentioned earlier I do hope this game has the finishing moves in it still cos i really liked those in the first one. The only real gripe I have and I know it's not the first game to do it and that is the magnetic weapons. I really hate seeing swords etc just clinging to peoples backs especially dual weilding rouges it's just too jarring for me. Anyhoo this game looks like its shaping up to be a really good title and wont be surprised if it gets a 9.5 or above from IGN and i'm glad I pre ordered it.
