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Dragon Age 2 Demo now available!
TribeofOne
Member UncommonPosts: 1,006
Im downloading now. I hope its as good as Ive hoped it would be!
Leave your initial impressions.
http://dragonage.bioware.com/da2/demo?sourceid=eag2960&om_u=2263747017&om_i=_BNZG4HB8ZSVO3A
Comments
Hm, it looks ok to me. Not really enough to judge the entire game, so I can't really understand why people cancel their preorder only based on this.
My critique remains the same as it was before.
GOOD:
- visually the characters and the world looks very detailled, better than in DAO.
- the more acton-ish combat is a good improvement
- again cool story where you want to know more
- Liked the city in the later part, especially how detailled things were and how large buildings were, both inside and outside.
- I liked the things in the distance I could see. In previous Bioware games the line of sight was often quite short.
BAD:
- the starter area looks very bland
- the motivation without an origina was not connecting me to my hero; I barely knew my brother and sister, just from the moment since I flee; I wish I had a bit more time to explore the backstory of the hero before the fleeing
- why do dead corpses vanish? Especially compared to how bloody the characters look, the floor looks like cleaned a moment ago: not very realistic
- party relation: why is Carver my enemy from the start? Makes no sense to me.
- exploding enemies: sometimes the death is a bit over the top
- I preferred the old look for Flemeth WAY MORE. It was a sort of understatement. This is just too... weird.
- finally: I am still not happy my hero has a voice. It just isn't "me". I never really know what my hero will say until I hear it. I preferred the DAO way how the hero spoke.
- Visual Design with too many grey and brown tones. To quote Yatzhee (about some other game tho) seems fitting:
"As seems to be common with the current generation, "realism" means the graphics look like I'm viewing them through a used coffee filter. What isn't brown is grey, and what isn't grey is too dark to make out."
COMMENTS:
- The game looks so far way too linear. Though it is not a surprise, all Bioware games since KOTOR have many tunnel areas. The starter area were the heroes family flees is really a bad but unfortunately typical example. I just wish Bioware would make more open zones and not these tunnel zones, and kinda go back the Baldurs Gate world exploring.
- The entire story looks a bit railroaded. I just don't seem to have any decisions, I felt much railroaded from event 1 to event 2 asf. Ok, its only a very small part, but still.
- Story at the start is a bit too much Hollywood Film cliche. But then, most games are. :-I
- Mage played a bit diffificult esp. at start.
Sidenote: I have to say I find the "official" hero with that black hair and beard is SO UGLY lol. XD
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
I agree with Elikal pretty much, although I do like the new flemeth better. I'm thinking she may have "restored" herself between the first game and now.
What I do not like however is the new combat. I'm sorry, but combat wise DA2 feels more like Diablo with a prettier skin: straight hack and slash.
What irked me demo wise ( I played the demo on the PS3 since I was defragging my PC at the time:p ) were hitches/slowdown in some spots and constantly being told "this is disabled in the demo" everytime I discovered something (inventory,weapon switching, etc.) as well as having the character creator disabled so I couldn't see just what could be customized on Bioware's character.
I agree with Elikal strongly here, I just do not feel like this character is mine, I feel like Bioware just pushed a character on me and said "You will play this and like it!" And they even simplified (i.e. dumbed down) choices you can make for Bioware's character (only rogues can pick locks?), again making me feel more like I'm playing an old Diablo style game than a new generation RPG.
The game is pretty, and I can see there's a story there, but I'm honestly not very interested in getting it as a first day purchase anymore. I think this is going to be a Steam sale/bargain bin purchase for me.
Not gonna download it... I will buy it right away when it comes out.
Thanks for the heads up though OP, gonna see if it's on PS3 yet too and see if or how things have improved on the console versions (my guess is they put a lot of focus on that).
Rubbish for the blockbuster crowd as expected.
I played the demo as soon as it released on the 360 ( cudnt be assed waiting for the PC version )
I am a massive DAO fan and was very much looking forward to DA2.
I do not like how I can no longer create my character.. ok yes you can change appearance, name and all that jaz if you want.. but I want to be a Dwarf again!!
I am not a massive fan of the combat, however I feel in the long run it will be a nice change and make the game feel a bit different from DAO so it actually feels like something new.
I quite liked the characters at the start and as always Bioware have got some great voice acting and story seems strong from the start with a few references to DAO.
You get to meet Flemeth early on, pretty cool
I like the new Graphic style. Quite a big improvement from DAO I feel.
All in all I think this was a pretty good demo and will more than definitely be keeping my Signature Edition pre-order. The story and characters had me intrigued from the start and I think after time I will get use to the combat ( I played Warrior, but switching to the Dwarf rogue and Female Mage, they were both very fun and the spells looked great )
Bring on March 11th!! 2 weeks of RIFT while I wait
First impressions: What the hell did they do?! Did they forget the first game was a hit??
They really did overhaul it from the ground up, by turning a decent modernized turn-based/dice-roll RPG into a half-assed hack-n-slash button masher. I absolutely dislike the combat, it's spam X X X X Triangle X X X X X Square X X X X X over and over again (playing on ps3). It just feels clunky like a cheaply made action game, not what I expected at all..
But I did see one redeeming quality that everyone seems to have overlooked so far:
THERE ARE CHARACTER CREATION OPTIONS! (face/hair/skin/etc)
It shows you all the options shortly after starting, but it is all greyed out and says 'appearance options have been disabled for this demo' in red on the bottom of the screen.
As for everything else character-wise, the lack of class options, race, and such just screams DLC.. and one of my fears had been this will be designed with DLC in mind even more so than the first, and i'm not really seeing anything to disprove that as of yet :
I mentioned it in the previous post... briefly
Mate, there will be no DLC with races, the game as all the voice acting done, you will always be a human mage, rogue or warrior and thats it. It's pretty much like Mass Effect ever been.
I'll have to agree with that,
Unless they release a side-story DLC where as you play as one of the other characters ( like the Dwarf Rogue with the bow in the demo ) Thats the only way I would think, not actually playing the main game as another race.... but hey you never know :P
I played demo on a PC and my feelings were the same. This is just a completely different game for me and I won't be playing it, sadly. I just hope they won't mess Mass Effect 3 up like that as I would be very sad.
EA/Bioware make a bad product *shock Horror*
Maybe the rumours on SW:TOR are all true ...
i'm like 99.9% sure this is the demo that were used for the first few screenshots of the Dragon Age 2 the graphical quality looks exactly the same, so thererfore I believe this demo was dragon age 2 in its early stages.
I'm a big fan of DAO, I didn't think the gameplay was the greatest, it wasn't, I didn't think its graphic was the greatest, it wasn't, BUT I can tell the story of DAO was by far one of the best story telling game out there, only matched by very few selected games.
in this demo, we saw a demo that was only direct x9 compatible, if anyone has a higher end computer, at launch, can turn on the direct x11 for soft poly models yada yada yada.
As I stated before, I strongly believe this demo is not a demo of the final version of Dragon Age 2 but at a rather early developing stage. A lot of flaws are seen in this demo, but I believe the game has come much further since this demo stage. I throughoutly enjoyed the cutscenes of Varrin and the templar, the intro trailer was pure amazing for me. And the music is very fresh but reminds me of DAO's music, also brings out the weight of the story.
To counter point some of the critics that was posted before:
" why do dead corpses vanish? Especially compared to how bloody the characters look, the floor looks like cleaned a moment ago: not very realistic" corpse vanishing has always been in Dragon Age, this clears up the poly rendering on the engine and lessen the load.
" I preferred the old look for Flemeth WAY MORE. It was a sort of understatement. This is just too... weird." I don't prefer either of the looks but looking at their changing artistic direction, I think this can be tolerated as DAO was much more gritty and realistic compared to DAII's comic/dashy style (like the hercules style lol I dunno how to explain it)
" The entire story looks a bit railroaded. I just don't seem to have any decisions, I felt much railroaded from event 1 to event 2 asf. " I'm pretty sure the demo actually skips a lot of events between event 1 and event 2
" turning a decent modernized turn-based/dice-roll RPG into a half-assed hack-n-slash button masher. I absolutely dislike the combat, it's spam X X X X Triangle X X X X X Square X X X X X over and over again" I'm pretty sure you only need to press X once, since it triggers auto attack?
Also to point out a few facts, DAII events starts off from where DAO players left Lothering, so flemth's changing appearance is a pure artistic direction change, not some reincarnation.
How much WoW could a WoWhater hate, if a WoWhater could hate WoW?
As much WoW as a WoWhater would, if a WoWhater could hate WoW.
shush, you are judging a STORY on that short demo?
you dont really think you will jump from lvl 3 to 6 in the retail version i hope
all this thing was meant to do is give us a basic idea of the engine changes dude, and that's what it did imo, quite imrpressive :>
ps: just a sidenote, flemmeth hasnt even been killed by us at that moment, why should she restore herself?
the demo starts after the destruction of THE FIRST TOWN (the one with the bridge and the thieves it, the one where you found sten and leliana)
"I'll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up! Not me!"
Didnt like DA and have no intention of trying 2 ..............terrible erhmmmm RPG
uh what a usefull piece of information
you prefer cs RP wise eh? :>
"I'll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up! Not me!"
Ill wait untill i see it in budget for 2.5euros man this game is oh so not bioware old style rpg anymore:(
Its casual super action bad grafhic console garbage eazemode crap:(
Already lost my intrest totally on bioware they just dont have it anymore for me they enter mass market only for $$$:(
Games played:AC1-Darktide'99-2000-AC2-Darktide/dawnsong2003-2005,Lineage2-2005-2006 and now Darkfall-2009.....
In between WoW few months AoC few months and some f2p also all very short few weeks.
Haven't tried it myself but does DA2 has better exploration then the first?
I mean in the demo you clicked a place and you got teleported there or you had to walk it like an open world?
just finished demo hour a go and it amazing combat are fun and graphic better than first one only bad thing there are less choices on dialogues but not game breaking
im big fan of the first game and i dont care about what bioware change there game alot as long as it fun to play
this time it change for good imo cuz i think only bad thing about first game was combat are really boring and unresponsive
i just cant wait for the full game
More limited then DAO its just crap this whole new DA2 game can't believe they go completely console audiance and limitations LOOKS AWEFULL can't believe they made a game looking so terible.
You can stick a DA name on this game but its COMPLETELY different game and bad thing its even far more worse then i thought.
I already did not like how DAO, but at least way better then this garbage:(
This safe me some money bioware thx for give this bullshit demo now i finally know i wont buy it:)
Games played:AC1-Darktide'99-2000-AC2-Darktide/dawnsong2003-2005,Lineage2-2005-2006 and now Darkfall-2009.....
In between WoW few months AoC few months and some f2p also all very short few weeks.
Wow I had a completely different experience, I loved the demo, the combat system was light years better than DA:O and the story and graphics are just as good as I expected them to be. The game plays like a linear single player game that has a lot of choices you can make along the way, which is exactly what they said they were making.
Dragon Age is very much like KOTOR and every other Bioware game they've made in the past, it holds up to their quality standard and it provides an epic linear storyline, with pretty nice graphics too. My main excitement is how they completely fixed my complaint with the combat feeling slow sometimes, they sped it up a lot, feels very action game.
The demo changed my mind and made me want to buy DA2
I said I wasn't going to touch the demo. I did, and sadly I regret doing so. Let me preface this by saying I was/am a very big fan of Dragon Age, and BioWare as a whole. I've been excited about the idea of playing Dragon Age 2 since I first started playing Dragon Age Origins. So this is how I feel about the demo. Firstly I think the story for it will be good. I've come to expect nothing less from Bioware. Just from that little bit of the demo that is shown. I feel that there will be a good story presented from beginning to end.
On the other hand, while I do like looks of the new combat animations. I really don't like them in this game. Alot of people didn't like DA:O's combat. I on the other hand found the animations and combat itself, quite rewarding. If they had named this any other thing except Dragon Age 2. I probably wouldn't have as much a problem with the changes to combat. If it had been a prequel telling about the wardens when they were still riding griffons into battle. The new animations just feel like too much of a departure from what was in DA:O for me to reasonably accept it as a sequel to something else that more or less takes place as the same time frame as DA:O. If it had been a prequel I could have gone along with it. As if I recall they said griffons died out in the Dragon Age universe about 300 years prior to the events of DA:O. Which would have been a fine setting for me, because alot could change in 300 years. Two things taking place in the same general time line that are radically different from each other is a bit much to swallow though.
As for the whole argument over lack of Origins. It just wouldn't fit with the story. DA:O was more about laying the ground work for the DA universe. Explaining various things to various extents. DA2 sole purpose is the story of the Champion of Kirkwall which Bioware has decided is a human. So the story sort of unfolds as an "Ok you a human fleeing from blight with your family. This and that happen how would you handle it?" There is no real ground work to be laid out like in DA:O. The pieces are in place Bioware has opted to instead with DA2 tell the story about the Champion of Kirkwall. Me personally I don't have a problem with it. I don't play RPG's primarily for the RP elements. I play them for the stories that their creators try to tell. Sure you can throw around words like Sandbox, Branching Dialogue, Character Customization, etc. Yet when it's all said it done a RPG will still just be a story with a beginning, middle, and end.
In closing sure, I'm not happy right now about what I've seen. I still look forward to playing the game, and I'm still glad I pre-ordered. I think the story will be good, and the characters interesting. Also while I don't like the new combat animations for DA2, I do like the Mage ones, spell casting actually looks fun now.
In War - Victory.
In Peace - Vigilance.
In Death - Sacrifice.
It seems like everyone is expecting the perfect game and then get disappointed when it isn't.
Anyway, I enjoyed the demo for what it was, showing off the new mechanics of the game. I quite enjoyed the combat although the camera takes some time to get used to. From what I saw I think the game has improved from the first one (other than creating your own personal character). If I had one real complaint from the demo is that I thought they used cut scenes a bit too much. I'm hoping the full game will have those spread out a bit more so I don't feel like I'm in an interactive movie.
I am still getting the game as my anticipation hasn't diminished. I feel that this is one of several very nice RPG's coming out this year (along with The Witcher 2 and The Elder Scrolls: V)
I gave it a bash for 20 mins or so last night and have to say i loved the combat much more than i did with the first. Sure, the graphics looked a bit crap etc but most options were disabled for the Demo.
I'm probably looking forward to Dungeon Siege 2 more but i'll still keep an eye on this when it releases in a few weeks.