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[Abstract]

I love how ridiculously critical people are being of what is obviously an extremely gimped version of the full game. Way to be people. Way to be.

[Aidoru Kami]

So I just wrapped up playing it as a female mage, (PC version) and I'm still fairly mixed as to how I feel about it. I've had the game pre-ordered for months and I'm definitely not changing that now, though the demo gave me mixed feelings. First off--



Pros:

-The fluidity of the combat is just great. All the changes you've made to it really put me in the world that much more. No complaints with the combat.

-I know that most will probably disagree, but I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE the graphics and art style. Seriously, I'm not even sure why I love it that much. I even looked at it and said, "That's not very impressive." But man, I just fell in love with it. It's very odd, but I just love it to bits. Sometimes the environments don't jive well with the character models, though I can't think of much else to complain in terms of graphics. The blood and gore is just so over-the-top that it's awesome.

-Music is Dragon Age-y. That's all I needed to know and all anybody else should need to know.



Cons:

-Dialogue wheel. Honestly? It just completely takes me out of the game. Every time it's like a screen popping up in the middle of a cut scene and asking me "Are you feeling like an angel, a ****, or completely indifferent?" Perhaps it's just these particular 'choices' that made me feel like that. Speaking of 'choices'...

-No substantial impact seems to be made from many of your choices excluding what class you choose from the get-go. I know that's petty seeing how it's a demo, though a demo is supposed to be a good representation of what your product is going to contain. For this particular demo, I sincerely hope that isn't the case.

-Pacing. I really hope that this demo takes a good chunk out of what actually transpires between all of those events. If it's not, then I really think the game has been rushed. Characters get thrown at me left and right, I end up at random places before I realize I've left my last location, events happen so fast that I'm not quite sure what just happened. Based on the way things DID happen, I'm guessing that it was merely made that way for the demo.



Mixed:

-Dialogue. Now I know this is one area you excel in, BioWare, and I'm not saying there was anything particularly wrong with the dialogue... but in a game, it's not just about having good dialogue in order to make the dialogue seem good. The dialogue has to work with things such as the story, characters, pacing, and voice acting. The pacing is what really messed it up for me. For much of the demo, I felt like I had completely missed something. I hadn't gotten a feel for any of the characters yet, but the game seems to assume that I've known them since the prologue and I've arrived at the endgame. In turn, this makes the dialogue come across as... well, messy. It wasn't for the entire demo, however. For example, I've already absolutely fallen in love with Varric. His banters with Cassandra were brilliantly written. I thought Isabella was written quite well, too! Though the pacing of the mission you go on with her hampered it a bit for me.

-Voice acting. This is really one that took me by surprise... I immediately assumed the voice acting would be terrific, but... Well... I quite liked the VA for Lady Hawke, and I downright loved Isabella and Varric's. And Flemeth... well, what can I say about Flemeth? Already knew she would be amazing. Bethany and Aveline's were just ok... I just really disliked Carver's, however. Makes it worse considering I played a mage.

-The new menu layouts. This one is indifferent because I'm sure I'll get used to it, but... Really, as I'm sure others have said, what was the point in making it so different from DA:O? I found those to be perfectly fine. Either way, this is really neither a complaint or praise. It's not likely to make much of a difference other than making it feel incredibly awkward to switch between DA2 and DA:O.



I've been incredibly terrified that DA2 was to be Mass Effect in a medieval setting. Don't get me wrong, I do love the Mass Effect games. You know what else I love? Spaghetti. Something else I love? Chocolate milk. But the second someone dumps chocolate milk on my spaghetti, that someone gets a fork in the face. My point being that while I do love both things, I don't want one to combine with the other. I like my spaghetti the way it is just fine. Now there's certainly SOME good things that go great with spaghetti! You could easily add a special spice to the sauce that, while making it vastly different from the original spaghetti, ultimately makes it better! But I still don't want my spaghetti in my chocolate milk and I still don't want my chocolate milk on my spaghetti.



Wow... that went on for way longer than originally intended. Um... ok. Either way, the demo has neither raised nor eased my fears about the matter. I'll need the full game to determine that.

[SleepyWerewolf]

I personally loved it. It definitely has an almost completely different feel than Dragon Age: Origins however. When I first started up Origins and Duncan's voice started narrating about my life and stuff, I suddenly became sucked into this fantasy world. I got that nerd adrenaline that only something like a fantasy setting can give me. When I started the demo, however, I did not get that feeling. Not that it's a bad thing, not at all. However, the overall feel is different to me. It's sleek, fast, and far more stylized/modernized than it's predecessor. Overall, however, I enjoyed the demo. Large parts of it is definitely still Dragon Age, just a tad bit revamped. Sure the technicalities are different and stuff, but it didn't bother me much. I can tell I'm going to love Dragon Age II.

[Bovolt]

JoePilot wrote...

Ziggeh wrote...

Bovolt wrote...

JoePilot wrote...

I'm sorry, I should have been more clear.  What I was implying was that I could beat this demo with my eyes closed by doing nothing but repeatedly pressing the A button. 

Not what I'm looking for in my RPGs, action or otherwise.

What's your point? The demo is on normal. I could beat nearly any enemy enconter in DAO by activating auto attack and then leaving to buy a lotto ticket. 

It was also mostly the opening part of the game. Explicitly built as an introduction to people unfamiliar with the gameplay. Were we really expecting a variety of new, challenging elements?

If they want to convince me to buy their game, then, uhhhh ..........yes.  Yes we were.

Dragon Age is still a bit too complex for an all encompassing demo that's less than an hour.

And demos generally suck and just don't show what a game can really do. The only demo that I can remember that did it right was Resident Evil 4.

[griffondor]

I just finished the demo on PC.

Grahpics:  I loved the look of the city.  Improved textures and lighting--- I'm going to love exploring this place.  But the walking paths...yuck.  Oh Lothering--gone is the peaceful setting of water, fields and pretty hills that I loved.  This is Lothering AFTER the darkspawn attack so it's not supposed to look pretty.  But I thought the landscape would at least be recognizable.  I couldn’t wait to leave.

Characters:  I actually liked the new Flemeth.  And I'm glad that in at least one of my DA:O playthroughs I let her live. LOL She is even more intimidating now despite the fact she doesn't look much like an elderly "witch of the wilds" anymore.  I also liked the look and voice of my female Hawk and the fact that we get to change her name as well as customize her looks (only her name in the demo though).  

Battle:  I feel like I need a valium after that demo.  Avaline is kick a%s.  She was the only one left standing half the time (my one and only playthrough as a fem rogue).  I can easily see myself waiting to play this game after someone makes a God mode weapon.  It's not that I don't like to fight, it's just that it's not my primary goal--I like the story, exploring scenery and the relationships the most and don't want to feel the adrenaline pumping through my body the whole game.  Those who thought the battling was easy, I don't know what to say.  I had to repeat a couple of battles before I got through them.  Rogues now do a lot of jumping and rolling around, and as someone already pointed out, the fighting has more of an anime feel now.  This has it’s pro’s and con’s.

Bodies:  Uhmmm...surprised by the many double DD's on the women.  As a female player, I hope not ALL the women are going to look like this. But if they do, I hope you give the women the same eye candy.  I agree with the previous poster who said that variety would be more appealing and realistic  It does seem like the men now have less buffed bodies and the women look more like barbie. . (I loved the muscles on the guys in Dragon Age:O).   Not a complaint really, more an annoyed observation.  :-0
I also  prefer the way both men and women walked in DA:O.  The main characters all had their own walk, and I loved how realistic it was.  Now the women walk like streetwalkers--very exaggerated strut.  Not keen on this change.  On a more positive note, I thought the faces looked great, the aesthetics similar to the first game, and in some cases better.  A lot of variety here and human expressions are fun to watch.  

Glitches:  enormous lag at full resolution of 2560 x 1440.  I have a GTX 580 video card, so I thought that should handle it.  Perhaps because this is a demo?  Anyway, lowering the resolution made the graphics run smoothly.

Other notes:  Gameplay and dialogue changes are similar to Leliana's song DLC.  You choose a dialogue option and your character speaks the lines in a round about way.  The words often don't match the chosen response as directly as I like, but it's a change I can roll with.  

The battle POV is also going to take getting used to... not used to the camera jumping around like that.  Half the time I'm clicking away only to find my character standing still with dagger raised but doing nothing.  Don't know if this is a problem with my mouse, me or the demo.  Hopefully it was my fault, I’ll improve and that won’t happen so often.

All in all, I’m excited about the game.  I can't wait to get into the relationships and the story.

[TwistedComplex]

Aidoru Kami wrote...


-No substantial impact seems to be made from many of your choices excluding what class you choose from the get-go. I know that's petty seeing how it's a demo, though a demo is supposed to be a good representation of what your product is going to contain. For this particular demo, I sincerely hope that isn't the case.

SPOILERS::::




Except your choices DO have an impact in the demo... Just depending on what class you choose will depend on which sibling dies...

[Sharuko]

I have huge issues with graphics, animations, character models etc. It took a huge step back.

[Wonderllama4]

Played as a rogue now. I loved flipping around and doing backstabs outta nowhere. The DW Rogue does the stuff I wanted from DW in Origins. Isabela is still hot. I want this game

[Pauravi]

Rosamund wrote...

Hmm...but I only get short little paraphrases to clue me in to what I'm going to say....aannnnnddd...what I say is nothing like what the paraphrase suggests.  Ok.. how the hell am I supposed to RP properly if I can't say what I want to say.  I don't want to play russian roulette with the conversation wheel here Bioware...

To offer you a different perspective on this issue...

I might point out that you couldn't "say what you want" in DAO or in any other RPG, either.
There has never, ever been an RPG where I didn't feel like I couldn't say what I really wanted to say.  Furthermore, in DAO you never actually said ANYTHING.  It was implied that you said what you clicked on, but I sometimes found myself getting reactions from people that made it seem as if I had said something in a totally different way than I had intended.  This, IMO, just as jarring as not saying the exact words that are being clicked upon (which is impossible to do in a cinematic styled conversation with a lot of dialogue anyway).

The way I think of it is that they are trying to provide you a general mood for your response rather than make you guess the attitude from the words, as DAO did.  I find that, since I can never actually say exactly what I want anyway, that the attitude of the response is much more important than the actual words, so I am completely okay with this.

Further, separating the "good" and "bad" and "question" responses into sections hasn't taken away anything, either, it has only cleared things up.  Almost every dialogue choice in DAO boiled down to "say something nice", "say something mean", "say something neutral", or "ask a question" also.  It is just that they were unlabeled, so I found myself annoyingly moving forward in conversations by accident, barring me from asking what I wanted to ask.  This eliminates that particular issue.

So yeah, maybe the character doesn't say exactly what you want or think they will sometimes, but lets not pretend that this is an issue with DA2's dialogue system.  It is and has ever been a feature of RPGs, and this one is no different.  It just presents the same shortcoming DAO had in a different way.  Video games simply can't present every possible option, and that's the way it is.

[Samurai Pumpkin]

The game looks flat. Not a lot of details on the character models.



I hope that they release a toolkit so that gamers can give the NPC's a much needed Makeover. Have you seen the Dragon Age Redesigned mod? That guy knows how to paint NPC's. You need to get him on payroll.



So far the game seems to have fallen flat on many areas. Releasing the toolkit would allow the players to take off where Bioware has fallen flat.

[Sidney]

JMKnave wrote...

The combat mechanics have noticeably changed. It's a lot more fast paced and definitely more of a hack/slash button mash rather than a tactical playstyle. The jury is still out on this one. I can't say I disliked it or liked it yet without a lot more playing time. It's definitely different though..

I keep seeing this and...really? I mean really? So because the animations are faster you can't be tactical? I daresay moden land warefare isn't "less tactical" than 18th century land warefare but it is clearly a lot faster. There might be a higher premium on thinking tactically faster but with the pause and tactics to back you up that really isn't even the case.

DAO shot what little tactics you could use because your people often wouldn't do what you wanted them to do - some awful thing charging your mage, send the Warrior to defend her, oh wait, you can't get off a single swing before they run across the room, right past you and start wailing on the mage.

[TrackerTrem]

Really? The graphics looked better to me. The towns didn't have ANY people in them which was wierd, but the graphics are 200x better

[JoePilot]

Abstract wrote...

I love how ridiculously critical people are being of what is obviously an extremely gimped version of the full game. Way to be people. Way to be.

I love how ridiculously apologetic people are for Bioware.  First it was pre-alpha screenshots, then beta gameplay videos, on and on and on.

Here's a little lesson on how the world works:  If they didn't expect/want criticism and reaction, they wouldn't have put this stuff out there.  I refuse to give this thing a pass based on the possibility that the full game may be marginally better.  I judge what's put in front of me.

[Sal_add]

Hated Orgins gameplay.

Loved dragon age II gameplay, guess I am the only one?

[thehistorysage]

Combat = same but faster. Repeat:: Exact same, but faster.

[wanted49]

Mr. Priestly,
I installed the Demo twice and both times the installer said the file(d3dx9_43.dll) is missing. Any idea where the file went? J
Help Please,
Wanted49 2/23/11

[Raverous]

I enjoyed it but it doesn't feel like Dragon Age. For a second I forgot I was playing Dragon Age and was shocked when they started talking about the Maker and the Grey Wardens. Regarding visuals, I'm disappointed with Aveline and Isabela. They both have very masculine faces and Isabela's outfit is a little ridiculous. Not a fan of her giant bubble ass either.  Even the Templars armor is watered down.


The consolitis is prevalent. I'm sure the full product will have a solid story but it will be like watching a great movie, not playing a great game. The technical issues will hold it back just like Mass Effect. Modding support is going to be a must if this game is to stand the test of time because I know Bioware won't get around to fixing all the little issues and the visuals certainly won't be refined at this point.

Modifié par Raverous, 23 février 2011 - 05:54 .

[Bovolt]

thehistorysage wrote...

Combat = same but faster. Repeat:: Exact same, but faster.

This

[akuma1973]

BigFunLove wrote...


PC


What has improved:

Rogue! Rogue! Rogue!
The use of “she” as a pronoun in reference to Hawke
Voiced character
Fighting/action
Graphics
Abilities/skills screen
Character  rivalry (can’t wait to see where this leads)
Flemeth – that’s an entrance

 
What is just as awesome as DAO:

Music
Blood/gore
Narrative presentation (so far)
Character voices

 
Nervous but holding judgment on:

Not being able to speak with followers while not at a home base
Isabella not wearing pants – this is a little out there and I could care less about the numerous raging breast size debates that have gone on, but come on…
I know a lot of emphasis and marketing attention has gone into making the fighting better and it is clearly improved, BUT I loved DAO because of the story and well-written companions.  I would gladly sacrifice fighting and graphics if it meant more dialogue options, quests and further layered story arc.
Dialogue wheel – I have played ME so I am familiar, my only concern is that because the character is voiced there will be less dialogue options.  I believe DAO had more response options.

 
What wasn’t great:

Mom Hawke over child’s death…voice actress really dropped the ball or maybe it was the lines.

Glitches:
Cut scenes a little choppy
Hawke would not fight at one point  – had to switch characters and click back
Could see right through a sliver of Isabella’s body in the end cut scene


Shout out – first demo I have ever played and first game I have ever pre-ordered.  Thank you bioware for making story count and including the female protagonist. 

Can't say that pressing A on the controller for 2 minutes between each chance to select a special attack/spell is an improvement. If they had gone the route they obviously  are aiming at and created unlockable combos ( like quality Hack and Slash games) when you level up rather than simple actions that break the monotony of pressing A, maybe it would have been an improvement. As it is, They have tried to take the best of the DAO combat system and intergrate it with a Hack and Slash system. And it fails. I'm a fan of Hack and Slash and if they had actually gone all the way in that direction I would have found the demo more enjoyable.

I'm glad there is a level of Character customization which was sadly locked in the demo, but while this game looks and Sounds good.

But honestly, the half  baked combat system seems to be a attempt to try and make it feel like DAO so this game can be called DA2, rather than a spin off IP such as Halo Wars was to Halo, or Dynasty Warriors Empires was to the DW series.

They maybe should have looked at Bethesda and borrowed Ideas from Oblivion, Or looked at Nighty NIne Nights for the Combat if they wanted a RPG/ Hack and Slash amalgam.

Otherwise rest of the demo was fine and the obviously rushed journey from the meeting with Flemeth to the alliance with Isabella was fine and quite clearly an edited version of the actual events in the full game. So don't understand why people are complaining about this part.

[Aapheus]

I played the demo on PC. I've already pre-ordered the game, and I didn't see anything to make me regret that. I'm certainly still looking forward to the game very much.

Pros:

Graphics are a bit better, if a little too cartoony at times. I like the change to the skill trees. One thing that bothered me with the skill trees in the original game is that sometimes you basically had to take essentially a throwaway skill in order to get a better one. For instance, to get Fireball, you first had to take Flaming Weapons, and to get Cone of Cold you first had to take Frost Weapons, and to get Crushing Prison, you first had to take Telekinetic Weapons, so if you wanted Fireball, Cone of Cold, and Crushing Prison, you had to take three essentially duplicate skills, meaning two of them would be 90% useless. DA2's skill trees eliminated a lot of that.

Cons:

As I said, I think the graphics are often rather cartoony for my tastes. The simple combat animations are too fast and choppy and seem to me to resemble games like Mortal Kombat or Streetfighter. I also think there was a little too much fixing what wasn't broken. I'm sure I'll get used to the new icons, but I liked the original ones better (and not only because I'm more used to them). Many people have been complaining that this game is a console port to PC. I don't know if that's true, but I understand why people would think that, because it does feel that way in a lot of ways. On the other hand, why did they replace the simple select all button with a ctrl-A keyboard command? Not that being able to use ctrl-A is bad, but why did you take away the choice?  Also, playing a rogue now feels to me a little too much like playing an assassin in Guild Wars.  Mind you, I very much liked playing an assassin in Guild Wars, but I wouldn't have wanted to copy it in another game.

Grade based solely on what I could see in the demo: B-

That score may improve as I get to see more of the game and the storytelling and get more used to the changes and what not.

Modifié par Aapheus, 23 février 2011 - 05:55 .

[Revakeane]

The only problems I have with the demo are these:

1) choppy dialogue and pauses throughout cutscenes (although this seems to have been addressed already)

2) stilted digital and voice acting

3) Isabela's boobs are REALLY BIG. Too big I think. But that may just be me.

Also, a chance to save your doomed sibling would have been nice.



Anyway, the combat seems really promising. I especially enjoyed feeling like a demi-god in the first "bull****" part of the introduction. Perhaps the combat animations can be improved tho, it seems weird when Hawke and Carver unleash massive swings and the darkspawn don't seem fazed when hit. Combat animation from games like KOTOR (when each attack would trigger an exchange of moves between players rather than a sequence of one-player moves) would be more realistic I think.



Can't wait for the real thing!

[Efesell]

In regards to graphics, the vistas and occasional low-res textures were pretty disappointing.

But still an improvement, I thought.

[LeandraNyx]

The only downside for me was that the sound was bad (listening through headset on the PC, Windows XP)... even after turning down sound and music the dialouge was muddy and barely audible.



Other than that though... this made me really look forward to the 8th!

[method115]

thehistorysage wrote...

Combat = same but faster. Repeat:: Exact same, but faster.

Yep I loved the improvements made. It's funny cause this is what the developers were saying throughout the interviews as well but people still complained. Not this exact sentence but similar phrases. I had doubts but I was waiting before I formed an opinion.

[TrackerTrem]

Yeah I couldn't stop staring at Izzy's chest during the demo. She might have well been headless.
And the combat may be faster but it's not more refined like DA:Origins was

Modifié par TrackerTrem, 23 février 2011 - 05:56 .