Dragon Age 2 - Demo Released

Originally Posted by Zloth
P.S. After looking at Bethany and the female-version Hawke, I'm convinced that Lara Croft must be a descendent of the Hawke family.

How about that rogue you team up with in the last part of the demo? Those things were just ridiculous.

Originally Posted by Pessimeister
P.S: How many others reacted to seeing Flemeth with "Hey, aren't you meant to be dead?" (I know, easily rationalised/explained..)

I thought it seemed like that meeting took place shortly after the fall of Ostagar. Speaking of which, I didn't like the change in her appearance. I thought it was a bit extreme.

Originally Posted by Dhruin
I could only do it by rubberbanding everyone - anyone figure out a better way?

CTRL+A is the default shortcut for it. The lack of a select all button seemed a strange omission, unless I missed it somehow…

Originally Posted by JDR13
I thought it seemed like that meeting took place shortly after the fall of Ostagar.

Yes, yes, like I said, easily rationalised. Ironically I had the same reaction when I saw Minsc in BG2 after being forced to kill him BG. (Time limit on his quest…)

That's not a rationalization though. Your party encounters her while fleeing Lothering, so there would be no reason to assume she should be dead by then.

You get the option to kill her in DA:O only after retrieving the Black Grimoir from the Circle Tower. In most instances, Lothering would have been overrun by that point.

Right you are, good sir. It was just a knee-jerk reaction on my part to seeing a previously vanquished adversary again.

I thought you really hit the nail on the head with your comments about the combat. The battle with the Ogre was the only time I actually needed to use any tactics whatsoever. I didn't like the flow of battle at all. I'm not sure if it's just the faster speed, or everything in general.

More importantly though, I just don't find the game very compelling. At least not from what the demo presented. And I don't see how the full game would be much different.

I was planning on buying this at release, but now I'm not sure if I'm buying it at all. Quite frankly I'm a little surprised by how positive most of the comments have been so far. I think maybe my expectations were just too high.

Yeah, why would the full game with the story actually intact be any different then a brief glimpse of the game showcasing it's combat. The combat in the demo is not much different then it was in DA it just was a lot faster. I am going to go out ona limb here and say that the whole game is not going to be corridors like the demo basically was.

boring
DX11 bugged
boring
linear
bad .. really bad voice acting in intro
boring
and yes .. worse then DA:O in my opinion

As stated in my previous post the loading times for cutscences and conversations seems to be a widespread problem. Hoping this doesn't occur in the final release. Mike Laidlaw says it s do to certain configurations and shouldn't happen.

Here are the links: http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/to…ndex/6150402/2

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/to…146306#6152591

Originally Posted by rune_74
Yeah, why would the full game with the story actually intact be any different then a brief glimpse of the game showcasing it's combat. The combat in the demo is not much different then it was in DA it just was a lot faster. I am going to go out ona limb here and say that the whole game is not going to be corridors like the demo basically was.

Ah right… because the full game will have a completely different feel. Kind of like the way people were thinking Arcania was possibly going to be a lot different from its demo.

I'm going to give everyone a break and not comment on this

I'll just reserve my thoughts and contemplate how true they are once the full game is out, and I bother trying it.

Did you notice that Maylander?

Originally Posted by rich ruffo
Just as i thought ,the game is for little boys that want to see big boobs.

I'm sold!!

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
I'm going to give everyone a break and not comment on this

I'll just reserve my thoughts and contemplate how true they are once the full game is out, and I bother trying it.

Did you notice that Maylander?

Unleash your anger… the disappointment is strong within you.

Completed it last night, a few thoughts:
- Lack of tactical view is annoying in bigger fights (like the Ogre fight).
- Easy to simply "let go" as described earlier in the thread due to the speed of the combat. Don't like that part.
- Unlike most, I had no issues with conversations/cut-scenes. It all looked, sounded and loaded just fine for me.
- Flemeth swooping in was pretty cool, but Flemeth herself looks.. strange. Her looks no longer fit her voice at all. Not even close. She used to look and sound like a somewhat crazy grandmother, now she looks like an older version of Xena sounding like a somewhat crazy grandmother. I found it almost as bad as the crazy witch in ArcaniA.
- I assume the dwarf and the seeker will be telling most of the story, and I assume they will be praised for doing so. However, I honestly feel the Leland/Halbeck thing in Alpha Protocol worked better, at least based on the bits and pieces we saw in the demo.
- Mages are still the ones to control. Set up the tactics of the Warriors/Rogues, and then manually control the Mages. However, I agree with curious - 60 second cooldown on healing?! Gee, thanks, it'll replace a health potion once every 60 seconds, the rest of the time you need to rely on potions.
- The art direction and overall look/feel of the world works. It's smoother and overall better than the original Dragon Age. Well, except for one thing: Darkspawn, Ogres included, look rediculous. They looked way better in DA: O.
- Like some others here, I experienced the glitch where skills don't trigger. Happened several times with the fireball. Selected the skill, picked my target, clicked the target and.. nothing happened. It always triggered the second time I tried though, so I never experienced it twice in a row.

Also, you could use potions in the demo. Just click the "quick heal" function in the bottom right corner. I actually had to use a few potions against the Ogre.

Anyway, it's roughly what I expected of the demo. Lots of combat, hardly anything story related. Nothing in it that'll stop my pre-order. I'm still expecting a solid game with a good story and some interesting characters.

Edit:

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
I'm going to give everyone a break and not comment on this

I'll just reserve my thoughts and contemplate how true they are once the full game is out, and I bother trying it.

Did you notice that Maylander?

Haha, I'll just sit right here and wait for the inevitable bashing later on. You're becoming predictable mate!

Did no-one notice the intro movie, ripped straight from the Witcher 2 promo movie? Dwarf telling two stories?
That left a bad taste in my mouth.
This strikes me as a game which is pretty damn scared of Witcher 2 - I say its no coincidence they released it just before Witcher 2 goes gold in a few months.

My family is still here so don't really have time for this demo.

I'm not surprised by the comments at all. Maybe Dragon Age 3 will have some kind of happy medium between ridiculous combat speed and tactical combat.

Originally Posted by Maylander
Haha, I'll just sit right here and wait for the inevitable bashing later on. You're becoming predictable mate!

Predictable AND consistent, please

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
Predictable AND consistent, please

Right! My bad, sorry.

Originally Posted by huggster
Did no-one notice the intro movie, ripped straight from the Witcher 2 promo movie? Dwarf telling two stories?
That left a bad taste in my mouth.
This strikes me as a game which is pretty damn scared of Witcher 2 - I say its no coincidence they released it just before Witcher 2 goes gold in a few months.

I believe DA2 was going for framed narrative way before the Witcher 2 promo movie, so it's not like they are ripping off Witcher 2.

I watched my friend play the pc demo, seemed okay to me. I'll have to give it a try myself today to get a better feel.

By the way: Are Rogues still needed to open chests? I couldn't find the specific ability used in Origins to open chests.

Originally Posted by lumiapina
I believe DA2 was going for framed narrative way before the Witcher 2 promo movie, so it's not like they are ripping off Witcher 2.

Ahh okay - probably the other way round then! I still found it odd for some reason.