Anyone else here tried it? If so, what are your thoughts on it? I tried it today, and while there are a couple things I don’t like, overall it looks pretty good, and has convinced me to go ahead and get it with the money I set aside at Christmas. I must say though, I DESPISE that the tactical overhead view that was in Origins is gone. (No doubt this is in part to appease all the console players who bitched like crazy about not having it.) You can zoom out some and tilt the angle, but it just isn’t the same. I certainly hope that someone can put it back in with a mod.
No complaints really. It kicks ass!!!
Played PC version only. Will get for PC only for Mods if they make any.
Alas, my desktop died a couple of weeks ago (ironically enough while I was looking on-line for a new one), and the new one won’t arrive until next week at the earliest. As a result I have been unable to play either this particular demo, which I was greatly anticipating, nor the Shogun II demo. It’s disappointing that they got rid of the tactical overhead, it felt like an homage to Baldur’s Gate, and that’s always a good thing. Any opinions on the classes? Are mages still obscenely overpowered or have the other classes caught up a bit?
I’ve played some of the demo and I’m liking it so far. I like the improved graphics and I like that the combat is more fast paced.
I haven’t played as a mage yet, though concerning the warrior class, it kinda reminds me of playing as a Sengoku Basara character.
I’ll also admit I like the new story telling medium and am quite interested in seeing how they use the “unreliable narrator” bit to tell a story in a video game.
Just finished the demo, I used the PS3 since my desktop isn’t going to be able to handle this, and I really don’t feel like upgrading it. The combat is like Mass Effect with swords to be quite honest. While I enjoyed it, it didn’t really give me the feeling the original had. I played as a warrior and didn’t even need to heal through the demo. Lil’ Sister had to heal herself a few times since throwing fireballs pulls threat, but overall the classes seem more in line power wise. (Though I’ve heard Bows are extremely overpowered from other people…but then again in the original game Bows were also extremely imbalanced so I guess that’s par for the course.)
Isabella actually joining the main party seems kind of cool, and I know that the game spans multiple years, but it’s kind of strange she’s in the game during the Blight portion of it. (She’s the Duelest Trainer in Denerim that you can sex up with your PC & Leliana or Alastair in Dragon Age…unless of course, there’s another Captain Isabella who happens to Duel Wield, fight with lightning speed, and is sexually promiscuous) I’m also curious about the story-telling mechanic in general, I’m hoping it’s not a 5 minute conversation between the hot Chantry soldier and the Dwarf…proceed to 1 1/2 hour dungeon…back to talky-time with the dynamic duo. Wash rinse repeat for 40 hours, cut roll credits. (I’m sure it’s not, seeing as how it was a demo to showcase gameplay and give a “feel” for the game, but there’s a lingering worry there.)
I’m obviously getting it day one, but I’m just worried the first one is going to be infinitely better. (Locking the inventory and not letting me see all skills is kinda meh as well.) Also, having “Friendship” vs “Rivalry” is a better system than “I Want Your Baby” vs “I’m Taking my Ball and Going Home” if it’s used correctly. Rivals can push each other to greater heights whereas if you pissed off someone in DA they’d either die (because they attacked you) or leave. I hope “Rivalry” is more of a “I hate your guts, but lets get this shit done” mentality.
Could you elaborate a bit? Because Mass Effect is primarily a shooter, with some melee kind of thrown in there. I don’t see a melee-focused game having much in common with Mass Effect’s combat at all.
Yes Mass Effect, particularly Mass Effect 2, is basically a 3rd Person shooter with RPG aspects to it. On the PS3, the demo version of Dragon Age 2 doesn’t allow for camera adjustment,(that I can find, though I admit I didn’t look really hard) making it a 3rd Person Magic/Bow/Melee adventurery-type RPG. To be completely honest, DA2 is really only a melee focused game if you’re picking a Warrior or Dagger based Rogue.
In Mass Effect, you hold down the Right Trigger and a Face button to use a power/skill, and with the PS3 demo of DA2, it’s the exact same deal. Now, granted you can’t’ switch control to teammates in ME, you’re Shephard all the time, so yes, DA switches it up in that regard, letting you switch it up from Melee to Range to Magic on the fly. The reason I’m feeling similarities between the two (in combat) is because switching to a range based or magic based teammate essentially makes that part of the fight a 3rd person shooter with powers controlled exactly like ME. On consoles, the combat between the two games is remarkably similar when you throw out the minor tweaks in DA2. (Hitting L1&R1 together selects your entire party, Hitting L1 or R1 singly scrolls through party members to directly control their actions… in ME you can tell teammates to use certain skills or move to a certain point on the fly, but you can’t take direct control of them.)
I really don’t know how else to elaborate on it.
Very interesting, thanks. I played Dragon Age on the PC and Mass Effect 1/2 on the 360, and they’re very different. So I guess the PC and console versions of Dragon Age were quite different from one another … (I mean, I’d heard that, but I never played both.)
I disliked it, but was putting up with it until it started bugging and finally crashed around Isabella’s introduction. I am now extra annoyed, because I can’t see forcing myself to play through all that crap again.
The combat was okay I guess but there was WAAAAAAAAAY too much of it, and being shoved along narrow paths gets boring fast, giving me the impression that I’m going to hate the final game without cheat codes to skip through all the mindless slugfests. The alterations to characters from the first game range from a bit strange (some people are accusing Bioware of pandering to lolicon by revamping the elven girl to look underage) to nonsensical (That is not Flemeth. Flemeth does not feel the need to paint herself up and prance around in a corset trying to prove how powerful and sexy she is to a random PC. Are we supposed to believe we interrupted her on her way to a hot date??)
Yes actually, because since this scene takes place during the burning of Lothering, she was there to make sure the Warden and company made it out safely.
… I think you missed the point of my complaint. 
My objection was not to Flemeth being present, it was to her redesign which is inconsistent with the way the character was presented in the first game. As presented in the first game, she doesn’t feel the need to dress up to impress people, even people who it’s important for her to make an impression on (like the Warden). She also doesn’t seem to dress up for her own pleasure (since she obviously could have if she’d wanted to, and didn’t, and also chastised Morrigan for having any interest in pretty things). So if she doesn’t dress up to impress PCs and she doesn’t dress up for the joy of dressing up, why has she changed her look to involve a corset and headress?
I know the actual answer is “Bioware thought it would look cooler”, and that if all else fails I can always claim Varric is still lying.
Dragon Age really stunk of design-by-committee work to me and this stuff honestly just confirms it further. The problem is that when you don’t have a single, strong artistic direction defined for a work, it is vulnerable to extreme inconsistency issues. Flemeth’s behaviour in this respect would be a good example- it’s obviously not a considered decision consistent with the overall direction of the game but instead Bioware deciding ‘hey, why not X’ ‘ok’. It was little things like this that honestly ruined Dragon Age for me and why I won’t be getting #2.
From the reviews I’ve seen so far, it seems DA 2 only looks better than its prequel since apparently the story’s pretty linear, the only stage is Kirkwall, and the game ends on a cliffhanger. Maybe my preordering the special edition was a mistake…
The lack of twincest ensured I didn’t preorder. 
I’m actually surprised there are gamer reviews out already… it’s only been like 48 hours right? Did they even sleep after installing it? :shock:
I’m a Sheppard fanboy myself… so I’m passing DA2 for ME3. More Kasumi Goto please! :twisted:
Now that I’ve finally gotten my new computer running I’ll actually be able to install this tomorrow. Hopefully I can get around the problems a lot of people with Nvidia cards are apparently having.
That’s what mods are for (you know it’s going to happen).
She damn well better be in the next one!
Clearly you should preorder my game instead!
But Narg shouldn’t, because the twins aren’t obtainable in this chapter.
If I recall correctly, I remember hearing that PC Gamer had a review of the game done even before the demo was out.
Fixed that for you 
Bleh, no thanks. But I didn’t really care for DA:O so it’s not a surprise I wouldn’t like the sequel. No offense to those who do like this game, but all the dialogue seems atrocious, and I honestly don’t trust bioware anymore. I liked ME2, but the way they just cut things that were half-assed in ME1, instead of trying to improve them, had soured me previously, so they’ll have their work cut out if they want me to buy any future titles.
Sorry if I come off as a douche, I really don’t mean to be! Just disappointed is all.