Dragon Age 2 - Demo impressions

[DirtyFinger]

Demo just came out and I played through it faster than it took downloading (no kidding).

And the verdict?

The first thing DA:Origins veterans will notice is that there are no Origins anymore (which is not surprising since it was announced long ago).
The game drops you into a series of fights against darkspawn, which immediately demonstrates the big big change from the first DA: Combat is fast!

It's so fast, that you can't spot any combat animations anymore! It's like those old hack'n'slash games where a silver pixel arc indicates your sword slash. And you run around the battlefield and occasionally teleport to enemies (ok, you "charge" at enemies, but at such an insane speed that teleport sounds just right).
You liked those powerful two-handed weapon animations that really felt like there was power behind those blows? Well, your bad luck since those days are gone. A slash animation takes less time than it takes you to blink.

I mean, the animation is bad. Really really bad. What were the project managers thinking?? And worse, you'll get to see those animations over and over again since the frequency and size of battles is very high.

I'm not sure if the story can fix the deficiencies in combat since there wasn't much of it in the demo.

What a letdown ...

 

[Double A]

That's it? No dialogue?

 

[Maniacal]

There's some dialogue, but its not a very long demo (maybe ~30 minutes?). The combat is indeed quite fast paced which itself isn't bad, though it can be a bit too fast at time (you barely see the killing blow), though I've only played Rogue. And the animations weren't any worse then they were in DAO (the combat was good enough, but not great, especially this day and age where most games just seem to fall behind), just faster.

The game runs a lot better than DAO did at least, and the GUI is fairly nice (though the skill bar at the bottom of the screen is odd looking but eh its minor). Medium graphics look a bit better, most of the detail is in the characters (the darkspawn are still clone-like like they were in the first game, though they look a little different).

The mage though seems to get quite the work out, a lot of weird acrobatic spinning, jumping and flourishing that looks very tiring, better than the rather boring animation in the first game but still odd. EDIT: Well I may have exagerated a bit, but there is a lot of fast spinning. Against the low level darskspawn magic is wonderfully effective.. though they do explode a lot.

I didn't like it when I saw a dwarf with an oversized crossbow firing a "rain of arrows" (WTH? this isn't crap like WoW Bioware) but when I got to use him at the end of the demo (it skipped ahead to Kirkwall and Isabella) it looks like a magic arrow that bursts (magically) into numerous arrows so its not too bad, it IS a high fantasy game so I've given up hope of seeing realistic non-flashy combat in the game.

The demo was too short to get much of the story which is kind of the majority of what makes Bioware's games good... but I think the game will be fine, certainly won't be worse than DAO.

 

[Disgustipated]

This has me worried. I think DAO combat can be too fast at times. Luckily you can pause it, and I frequently did to reassign orders. I don't pay that much attention to animations, so that may not be a big deal. But I do like the combat to be somewhat tactical and not an action game.

 

[Thoughtful Thug]

Played it.

Make you wonder why the developers decided to make some changes, when in fact there wasn't anything that was needed to be changed. I don't the honeycomb tree feature for the specialization, but I guess that is kinda minor. But the combat seems almost the same, though I think it is graphically inferior to its predecessor.

So far, I am not going to buy it. I have a hunch that the storyline will be tailored for the console kiddies. I see signs man.

 

[Maniacal]

This has me worried. I think DAO combat can be too fast at times. Luckily you can pause it, and I frequently did to reassign orders. I don't pay that much attention to animations, so that may not be a big deal. But I do like the combat to be somewhat tactical and not an action game.

Again, its hard to tell from the demo which is just two parts of the full game, the combat slows down a bit once the enemies get stronger (the animations are still fast but you can still pause it, I certainly did a few times). Healing takes longer to recharge too.

The specialization tree isn't very honey-cone like, its not really much different from the linear one in DAO, slightly better imo.

The graphics are definitely better without going Crysis on us, the armours look a hell of a lot better too. Most of the demo is in some sort of weird (apparently the blight spreads faster than lighting and BURNS EVERYTHING IN ITS PATH. or Lothering was really close to the ash wastes of Vvardenfel in Morrowind. Kirkwall looks nicer though but we barely get to see it).

EDIT: oh yes, and as said it uses the conversation mechanics in Mass Effect, I don't know how much the 'evil' or 'good' choices affect the game, but some of the neutral ones are quite tempting to use and I did end up using many of them. The camera is a bit different too, its not bad but I do miss the isometric view.

 

[PhroX]

I was a bit wary of DA2 before I played the demo (was still expecting it to good, just not great), but I have to say, this has put many of my fears to rest. Apart from the exaggerated first fight, the combat still seems good, even at the faster pace there's plenty of opportunity to pause and act more tactically (and remember, the demo is on one of the easier difficulties).

Didn't get to see that much story/dialogue. The ME system seems to be working OK though (and sarcastic Hawke is awesome ). The one beef I had was that the sibling death seen didn't really seem to bother Hawke that much even with the "nice" option - I would've expected more grief. Also, unlike ME, both VAs seem to be good.

Overall, I'm really looking forward to DA2. Not saying it's going to be an all time classic, but based on the demo, I expect it to be pretty damn good.

 

[MkLh]

IMO it looks great, definitely better graphically than Origins. Especially spell effects are now gorgeous. But it seems to have the same basic problem than Origins: there are a lot of battles and they aren't that varied. How many hurlocks do you have to kill on the demo only?

 

[DirtyFinger]

The demo is basically just showcasing the combat. Customization, Inventory, everything is locked and they stuck two scenes together without the connecting quest or story. So there's no point in describing anything but the combat in DA2.

However, remember what the fastest class in DA:O was? The dual-wielding melee warrior/rogue.
Given the apropriate boosts, that class could deliver many hits in a short time.
Now the slowest class - the two-handed weapon fighter - has combat animations that are even faster than the fastest rapid strike animations of the DA:O dual-wielder!

That's how fast they sped it up!
Now, DA:O combat was relatively slow, granted, but this is ridiculous! I mean, come on, you don't swing a 10-pound 180cm blade like it was a badminton racket!

Combat just looks like a cheap beat-em-up now.

 

[Maniacal]

Yeah they completely screwed up 2handed weapons again, they were way too slow in DAO and one they are way to fast and apparently light as a feather.

The other classes' animations aren't quite as ridiculous thankfully, though I haven't tried archery or sword and board yet and hope they simpyl didn't include some animations (your tank (who's name I forget, she's the Templar's wife) just does this one stabbing motion almost the hole time, mind she only has 1 ability at that point but still).

Doesn't look any worse than Diablo though thats for sure (and that is kind of a cheap hack n slash).

Besides this stuff though the game seems good.

 

[PhroX]

(your tank (who's name I forget, she's the Templar's wife) just does this one stabbing motion almost the hole time, mind she only has 1 ability at that point but still).

That's a result of the toggle ability she has. Turn it off and she gets the normal attacks.

 

[Maniacal]

Ah, I never actually really used her, I'll play the demo again (for a 4th and 5th time hah, I have to wait longer for the game anyway because I pre-ordered from Amazon) as sword n board and archer anyway so I'll see.

 

[Esckey]

Is there a difference between the PC version and the Console?

 

[Maniacal]

From some of the comments I have seen the console version feels more like button mashing in the combat, I wouldn't recommend it. Dunno how moddable DA2 is going to be but I found several extremely useful mods for Origins too (lockbash, a good looking Leliana, storage guy in camp, a mod to remove the annoying guy in camp who wants you to buy DLC, and a mod to change some of the colours of your clothing and armour for variation )

 

[Disgustipated]

To be honest, I don't pay that much attention to animations. I'm too busy keeping an eye on my health and mana bars and the action queues. There is so much to pay attention to, I hardly have time to appreciate the nice graphics. Although I would set up good triggers, and can just sit back on easy fights with a melee character and swing away occasionally using my abilities once they came up. I especially liked playing my rogue, as rogues on their own don't do much (they can't maneuver to backstab etc.), so it's better to control them directly. Problem is mages need to be controlled directly too. Anyways sometimes I can sit back with a rogue and watch all the action, but during the tougher battles I'm busy micromanaging everything.

So animations aren't that important to me. I do like graphics of course. I just like the game world to look cool when I'm not in combat. When I'm in combat, I don't pay that much attention to the game world.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

The more I heard about Dragon Age 2 the less I cared.
More ""action oriented", no zooming out, direct control, "we want to attract the call of duty crowd"...
Well, Mass Effect 2 was a good example how to streamline a game without dumbing it down and it somewhat alleviated my doubts about DA 2.

That being said, I just played the demo and I'm horrified. The first battle was cool and I thought "Diablo 3 is pretty good", but then it dawned on me that this is not (supposed to be) Diablo and as soon as you have a party of 4 people it goes downhill.
The camera is terrible, you don't see enemy archers, you don't really feel as much in control as in Origins. I also noticed AoE spells don't cause friendly fire.
No zooming out, no friendly fire ? Yes, that's just like Origins was on the console.
They wanted to showcase the combat and combat is exactly where the game fails for me.
Looking forward to DA 3 when Boware ruefully announced it will be more true to Origins, which might just as well be their plan.
Not saying the game is going to be bad, but it's not what I hoped for.
Definitely not paying full price for this, maybe I'll buy a "ultimate" or complete" edition in a year or so for 20-30 bucks.

Also Oistralian poirates if I correctly recognise the accents.

 

[Truronian]

I really liked it.

The good:

- Combat. Much more visually appealing than Origins, while the quicker response times and higher enemy health make the tactical use of abilities more important IMO. Will be interesting to see what the final build is like (it's supposed to be slower). Origins' combat was clunky in comparison; I only really felt like a awesome warrior/rogue dud when the deathblows kicked in.

- Mages. I disliked mages in Origins. They had silly hats and their animation were awful. As a console player, their myriad of spells was also difficult to handle without frequent pauses (I don't like pausing). DA2 mages look a lot better (so far), and the smaller number of now-improvable spells is welcome.

- The voice acting. Varric, Flemeth, Cassandra, Isabella and Aveline are all pretty vell voiced IMO. boy and girl Hawke sound good when being aggressive, and are certainly passable otherwise. Carver and Bethany? I'm sure they'll grow on me.

- The characters. All pretty interesting, Aveline and Cassandra in particular.

- Visuals. I think the new art style is big improvement, though it would have nice had the darkspawn looked more similar to their Origins counterparts. The faces in particular look a lot better.

- Skill trees. I didn't like Origins' ability progression system... especially for mages. DA2 seems to have done away with many of the rubbish and cloned abilities and focused on improving the one's that worked well. Plus the move away from weapon style as a character focal point should improve build variety (In origins you could pretty much pick every talents for a weapon type plus all the general talents by the end levels).

- Enemy waves.

The OK:

- Dialogue wheel. I like having a voiced character and the dialogue wheel system works well, however the choice of response seems a little limited at times. Plus some of the line deliveries are iffy.

- The story. Hard to get a good impression of it from a demo, but it seems OK. I don't like the story's start point, but the framed narrative is intriguing.

The bad:

- The gore. The hurlocks behave like they are made of lego, exploding with the slightest provocation. Even rookie Hawke has no problem pulping them.

- Archery talents. Rain of arrows should go away. It's daft.

- Invisible walls. They had a perfect opportunity with the advent of increased battlefield movement to allow enemies to go flying of cliffs and Rogue Hawke to jump down onto enemies and the like, but they seem to have squandered it. Enemies behinds three rocks? Hawke has to trek around.

- The apparent loss of skills. Origins' skill implementation wasn't great, but I would have liked to see them return in an improved form.

Looking forward to the full game.

 

[Maniacal]

http://i.imgur.com/45R2G.jpg

If you choose the same type of dialogue choice )as indicated by the picture next to it, which does sometimes change) at least a few times in a row it can change the way your character says the his next line(s). Not sure about the extent of it, but it has some minor effect anyway, which is neat.

 

[Double A]

What happens if you only choose sarcastic lines?

 

[Maniacal]

What happens if you only choose sarcastic lines?

You get more sarcastic? Probably won't make most of your companions love you but that could be interesting.