I want to start by saying that I really really loved DA:O. Having played the demo for DA2, I can safely say that I won't be picking up this game which is a bummer. I really hated most of the new gameplay to the point that I don't even want to see the story out. Pretty bummed.
that is only one option of the gameplay, you can still do it the tactical way like in DA:O, the point of the demo was to get people to use the new type of gameplay, when it comes out both styles will be available and you can pick either/or depending on what you prefer.
I both like a dislike the combat additions to Dragon Age 2. I actually like having to press the basic attack button over and over, but they should add the ability to enable to auto attack. I like this because originally as a mage my auto attack was boring and I didn't feel powerful like I would think a mage should.
What I think they need though is that when you switch between characters it should pause battle. Or at least give you the option to pause it without actually bringing up the inventory menu. I should be able to pause it and cycle through my allies and enemies seeing who can do what and who has the least health. It makes combat feel more Chaotic and inmidant it also makes me feel like I can only play my character and hope the rest are smart enough or that I've setup the right amount of tactics.
Call me unrefined if you like, but I absolutely despise having to micromanage my party members' AI. I prefer to leave that to the developers. DA2 feels more hack-and-slashy, and I'd say that's a positive step. Just pressing the x button to attack and letting my character do the rest felt a little unengaging after a while, and having to constantly pause the game to access powers broke up the action too often. Overall, it feels a lot less clunky, and I really like the addition of an actual voice for my character.
As a fan of the DMC series the button-mashing isn't a turn-off; I prefer it to sitting and watching my characters blithely hack at stuff on their on. I MUCH prefer the mage, though; even on console I found it easy to aim and fire my attacks. All in all, I prefer the combat in this, though I do see it getting boring (it had already started by the end of the demo).
My gripes with it is Hawke (his and her voice are just.... blegh) and the afore-mentioned breast size. Though F!Hawke is a bit more normal everybody else is just ridiculously large. C'mon. They'd get in the way and look funny.
Ummm Hawk is meant to be only human so human is what you get. BioWare said months ago you could only play as a human.
As for the demo I love it. I'm excited for Dragon Age 2. I feel like move with the first game and this seems like it will be better then DA:O. The combat I think is better looking and all and all better as well. .
It feels so strange and wrong to me. I also notice a numerous assortment of UI glitches. Like in the level up screen if you don't click the bottom right of a characters portrait the screen just exits for some reason. That's sure what I wanted to do.
I also feel the graphics are somehow worse than DA:O. Things seem cleaner, no doubt, but the world feels lifeless somehow, the animations seem odd or something. I also notice the armor basically looks like it' just painted onto the characters. At some cases, it even acts like it too. What's the point of armor if
you can just slip a dagger right through it somehow, a-la Wesley?
pretty disappointed, and I was one of the hugest DA:O fans you'll meet.
Ok, the graphics and spoiler are issues I had as well.
Also, the combat. What happened to the "You have to get in position to use your spells/abilities personally?" Having Hawke jump up (rogue), then fly 30 feet AT LEVEL 1 and stab a guy AS A BASIC ATTACK annoyed me. Then, the evade move (yeah, I'm sure one backflip can launch you back 30 feet), and the backstab (Instant teleportation behind target, then stab? How is that tactical). The flask kicking was cool though. Oh, and still no jumping.
On to the characters. I don't remember hardly anyone's name. They just didn't seem as memorable to me (I did like the dwarf...whatshisname). They had more emotion, but still felt dead. The conversation wheel helped, but was just weird. Oh, and Flemeth. She wasn't exactly a D cup in Origins (don't think you can pack on that much cleavage so fast), had a low cut on CHAINMAIL, but I can understand the horns (link to being a dragon, I can live with that). The graphics were clean, but the world was dead. Not to mention the floaty weapons on people's back. And every female character had very large....eyes....and shirts cut like the barmaid's (in redcliff), minus three inches, and two sizes. The deaths (see spoiler) didn't spew blood everywhere, but I'd expect a dagger to do some damage.
I tried to get into it, I really did. But the world just seemed dead, characters pulling off impossible feats (at least give that some sort of cooldown), a graphical glitch, floating weapons, or the HIGHLY repeatitve feel of combat kept me from jumping in. See last bit of Yahtzee's Oblivion review. Not to mention the demo likes to skip around a lot(let us meet the dwarf, then the girl in the bar, then end it on a cliffhanger).
Oh, and making the combat faster paced? Forget it. A mage will need to go right back to the circle menu (which just looks weird now) at later levels, and just relying on everyone to do the right thing won't work everytime. Less pause and think, then watch animations (I like tactical combat, just a short summery), and more pause at awkward times, and feel the flow mess up. I thought about the hunk of plastic in my hand, and that's not a good thing.
I can see how others might like it. I just could not get into the world, and then everything else caught up with me. If it was more immmersive, hell yes I'd get it. I already like my Hawke, and some characters intrigued me (though I can't remember their names, only vague shapes), and I would love to see how the interrogation cutscenes go. This just wasn't my thing, at least not now. A bargain bin pickup? Most definitely, but I won't pay $60 for it.
I really wish they stuck with the Dwarf-addled version of Hawk-e's sister, rather than going to the sober, real version.
It was at least more interesting.
Also, I see major plot derailment if your Origins save has you offing Flemeth. She might be able to still do the beginning part, but "Sword-through-skull" generally has a negative impact on further help.
-British accents. Seriously, why are they always British accents in these games? It just bothers me, and I really don't know why, but damnit If you're gonna make me listen to my character talk at least give me a couple of regional options for the voice I have to pretend is mine.
It's always the same British accent. I would just love it if rather than using a 'traditional' British accent, they opted for a Scouser or a Jordie accent instead as that would be fucking epic.
Fereldan is supposed to be like Britain, Orlais like France, Antiva kind of a mix between Spain and Italy (the culture is more like Italy, but the accents are more Spanish sounding), Tevinter Imperium like the Byzantine Empire, and the other places I don't know what their supposed to be like (Freemarches, Rivain).
I'm indifferent to the art style of this game, as I believe art is subjective to one's own taste. The demo is average in my perspective, but the one thing that really stood out for me was the rogue's archery option. I enjoyed launching explosive arrows at mobs usually surrounding my mage. Archery wasn't very effective in Origins, as my warrior couldn't exactly protect himself from the inevitable beatdown he was given unless I switched back to his sword/shield set (then he tanked for the team). In this game an archer has a (literal) fighting chance when something wants to get up close and personal
The way a warrior swings his/her two-handed sword is way too unbelievable; it's like they're wielding hollow broomsticks they're so light. I'll give the mage a playthrough when I get the time.
Wired thing was, on my very first playthrough, the game lagged a hell of a lot, I was seeing black, triangular spots on the ground, and the monsters looked like crap as if none of my settings mattered, and my computer is relatively new and it exceeds the recommended specs. Then a few days later I reran the demo with lower settings (at first) and everything was buttery smooth. Then I maxed everything after the very first fight and it still played smooth. It was like the demo (and/or my computer) was bipolar.
I won't be getting this on the first day, though I will get this game eventually (probably when EA/Bioware conclude their cavalcade of DLC that tends to nickel and dime anyone interested). I may even repurchase Origins (this time,on the PC), though that may be a waste of money.
Love it. I really need to finish DA:O before March 8th.
My only question is why did they change Flemeth's appearance if it's set in the same time as the first game? Continuity is nice.
Well it can't really be the same time since the darkspawn apparently took over everything, I'm guessing it's a couple of decades latter, or even centuries.
And since they gotten alot prettier this time around I assume they put together a darkspawn union that demanded a good health-care plan, then there were probably quite alot of strikes, some slaughters, some demonic sit downs,... trust me these tings take hell of a long time to work out
Yeah, a little bit too huge if you ask me. Don't get me wrong, I love breast just as much as the next man, but those things looked like freaking cannonballs.
I liked the demo, combat was fluent and it felt more action based tha in the 1st DA. The camera was huge turn-off since i couldn't drag it bag more than just a little. And the "new" Flemeth is horrible, i didn't even know it was her before some1 in my party expained it to me. Why do they need to change the way every character looked like in DA1? Even the darspawn don't look like themselves. (I'm not complaining about Isabela though, shes hawt!)
And there was something i noticed in the game and trailer that did not match.
Huge spoiler alert, but this is just a theory and i can be really wrong about this part of the story. In the demo, Hawkes brother dies, but then after meeting the flemeth comes load of cut-scenes. In those cut-scenes Hawkes brother is whit him/her, but i didn't see hes/her sister in those cut-scenes. Maybe she dies in the real game.. Oh my, what a twist. Ofc, just a theory.
I really wish they stuck with the Dwarf-addled version of Hawk-e's sister, rather than going to the sober, real version.
It was at least more interesting.
Also, I see major plot derailment if your Origins save has you offing Flemeth. She might be able to still do the beginning part, but "Sword-through-skull" generally has a negative impact on further help.
It's just after Lothering gets attacked. Like... the moment you travel to Redcliff or where ever you chose to go first she set off and then met these guys. I would assume that this demo (the bit at the start) happens before the Warden even makes it to their first destination.
Lothering isn't destroyed before you finish one of the main quests, like "Broken Circle", so I'm pretty sure the wardens are busy doing some Grey Wardening for a group of infighters at the exact moment the game starts. either that, or they're asleep.
-British accents. Seriously, why are they always British accents in these games? It just bothers me, and I really don't know why, but damnit If you're gonna make me listen to my character talk at least give me a couple of regional options for the voice I have to pretend is mine.
It's always the same British accent. I would just love it if rather than using a 'traditional' British accent, they opted for a Scouser or a Jordie accent instead as that would be fucking epic.
Fereldan is supposed to be like Britain, Orlais like France, Antiva kind of a mix between Spain and Italy (the culture is more like Italy, but the accents are more Spanish sounding), Tevinter Imperium like the Byzantine Empire, and the other places I don't know what their supposed to be like (Freemarches, Rivain).
I hear a lot of people say that "dragon age has become an ACTION SLASHER GAMER!!1ONE11!eleven" But clearly these people have never played a hack'n'slash or action adventure game, because DA2 doesn't and couldn't work in that way.
I do prefer the combat, I always hated the fact that in Origins if you needed Alistair to run and keep a blood mage occupied, he would drool on the spot for three seconds, shout something, jog over to it and then begin his attack meanwhile Morrigan had got caught on a tree and dozed off.
Everything about that Demo screams "Hey, lets take this awesome game we made for PC gamers and dumb it down for consoles to cash in."
-The interface is simpler and therefore less detailed.
-The dialog system is the dreaded summary, which means you don't really know what you're saying.
-The combat system makes it feel like a hack and slash. During a fight with an Ogre or whatever that big thing was, I was actually able to avoid being hit by moving away once he threw his rock. That's not RPG combat, that's arcade combat.
-I think it looks like crap too. Even with everything maxxed out on my PC it looked like a cheap Xbox game. I thought the original had a dark earthy realistic look to it. This looks terrible.
-It performed terrible. I have an extremely high end rig and this game lagged to hell while barely even using my system resources.
I know I'll have people screaming at me about how it's "Just a demo." but all of the above observations are easily gained by playing the first 40 minutes of the game.
I'll still play simply because of my love for the world and story, but I am deeply deeply disappointed by the direction they went. I thought Mass Effect 2 was bad compared to ME1, but that is nothing compared to what they did here
i really liked it
i was a huge fan of the first dragon age but the combat did need a huge change
at its worst it was incredibly boring and with this game it feels very similar yet much more fun
the one thing i hated was Flemeth
she looked incredibly stupid, whyed they have to change her, her old look as a little old lady worked much better
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