The Dragon Age 2 Impressions Thread

Seeing we're less than an hour from the demo's release, I figured getting a thread established early was a good idea.

All questions will finally be answered, by our personal experience. I'll update the OP with DL links, as soon as they hit the web. Hopefully it will release on Steam.

NOTICE: This game already has a lot of hate. Please do not troll this thread, if you have no intention to play the demo. If you play the demo, and don't enjoy it, please explain why you don't like it. Even if you do like it, please give a bit of detail in your impressions. A simple "It sucks" or "It's awesome" don't help the community.

EDIT DL LINKS

Bioware
Softpedia

Pretty fast mirror

Now up on Steam.

EXTRA SPECIAL NOTE: The DX11 functionality is not fully implemented in the demo, and enabling the option will severely affect the framerate.

 

There's also a demo of the console version available right now on XBL.

 

You can dl the demo via steam now as well, it's ~2gb.

 

It keeps crashing on me, I cannot go past the character facial modification screen.

 

I enjoyed the demo, and I'm going to rant.

I don't understand all the hate. The demo really impressed me. The combat system is great. The reason I wanted to play as a rogue in DA:O was for the awesome assassin class, but I couldn't last through 5 minutes with the rogue because it was just so BLAND. I tend to like flashy moves, and DA2 makes the rogue look pretty . Backstab actually looks sexy now, instead of just ya know... running behind some idiot darkspawn and stabbing it with panzy little pokes. It's a GAME. Games are supposed to be entertaining. I feel like half the people hating on DA2 expected a super realistic combat system with super realistic combat moves, which it obviously isn't, nor is trying to be.

Also, combat is not easy. The demo was locked on NORMAL mode, which meant your party members don't even get damaged by your own AOE spells like fireball. Once the actual game comes out, there will be harder difficulties. Even on normal, the ogre fight was a bit challenging, since Bethany's and Hawke's hitpoints were so low (I played as rogue).

What's so bad about having more action in an action oriented game? Also, why are people pmsing about the new UI? It's extremely clean, and it's easier to maintain your characters during combat. The graphics are also not too shabby, and it looks perfectly fine for the setting of DA2. Yea, it's no Crysis, but why the heck does everyone expect every big budget game nowadays to look like Crysis in the first place? In fact, I like the style and graphics of DA2 better than Crysis tbh. It also runs better than the first one from what I've experienced, with better graphics. That's good work by Bioware.

And yes, the cutscenes. The cutscenes are great. Now, in addition to feeling accomplished when defeating a boss, I actually get to watch a little awesome clip of it dying.

Oh, by the way, the dialog wheel is a nice addition. I personally didn't really like the silent hero type, so it really improved the quality of the character to me.

/rant

I'm definitely excited for the game after playing through the demo. Now, it's time to play with the Mage and Warrior.

 

Is that true? One of the thing I liked about the 1st one was that you had to be careful of the placement of your party when using blizzard or that deflagration spell...

 

I really hope the game doesnt skip around the story like the demo did. id like a little more of an introduction to the world again like in DAO1. im not a fan of one button does everything i kept trying to attack someone but instead it moved me closed to them. im already getting a bad feeling the game is going to suck though I hope im wrong

 

I have played through Dragon Age Origins, Awakening, and the DLC three times.

I played through the Dragon Age 2 demo on all three classes today and it was a disappointment. I was really hoping it would be great, but the demo didn't deliver. So far it doesn't feel like an RPG... it feels more like a hack n slash. Animations are choppy and look like they're missing frames in between slashes, strategy was nonexistent, running around with your team felt really strange and odd. I don't know how to explain running around feeling strange, but the movement just didn't feel right. You would start moving slow and then speed up. The movement wasn't very fluid at all and felt clunky. The combat is completely different.. do not expect an RPG like combat experience. If you've played Kingdom Hearts or Dynasty Warriors then this is what the combat in Dragon Age 2 feels like. The new dialogue wheel feels very dumb to me. There's three options "Good Guy", "Funny Clever Guy", "Bad Guy". In origins there would be up to like five or six and the responses you would receive from the NPCs would be a bit more complex, but its pretty straightforward in Dragon Age 2.

Ruckus speaks the truth in his last post and although I agree that games are entertaining this just feels forced and unnecessary.

There was also some odd intermittentlag I experienced in the game. I was running at 1080p, 8x antialiasing, DX9, Medium settings. It wasn't serious and it only lasted a couple seconds, but I'm assuming its just because the game is a demo.

I'm still getting the game for stories sake and I really hope everything past the demo is an improvement.

 

It seems that the story is going to be a lot more interesting than DA1, but that's it's only redeeming point though.

The combat system, well, I really can't like it, it's just simply bad... You swing a 2 handed sword so fast compared to DA1, but the impact of it feels like swinging a toy sword. The combat interaction is already a lot lesser, in DA1 for eg, sometimes when you kill and enemy with a crit, you will have some fanciful animation, in DA2, nothing, there's simply a feeling that the blow doesn't even connect. It feels like those kind of hack and slack game, where you don't feel like you are killing a real living enemy like DA1 which was what made it really fun, it feels like you are taking down training dummies.

 

Yup, in the full version the hard difficulties will be unlocked and the AOE spells will hit your own folks just as bad.

There are more than the 3 options. Sometimes I was up with 4 or 5 options (the leaf and purple crystal options?) so not just the 3, although much of the first few scenes was just those 3 options.

 

Maybe because its just he demo but i thought the overall feel and look of the game was really bland. Like in DA:O the textures were very well done and ur environments felt realisitic to the scenario, however in DA2 everything just feels like a linear rpg with dumbed down console graphics. Im not impressed at all, Infact im happy that I didnt preorder this

 

Actually I was right, from the bioware forums: http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/141/index/6146940
Will it show off DX11 effects on the PC?
-DX11 features will only be available on the PC purchase copy of Dragon Age 2.

Also textures from DA:O were actually pretty bad unless you modded it with JBTextures and other mods.

 

Er, no, you can set it to run the dx11 renderer. Just pick it in the config utility, and you'll run with dx11 and high settings.

 

Played it a bit on my desktop. So far I like it, probably just because I'm such a big fan of DA:O and I can't wait for this to come out.

 

I REALLY liked the demo.. for the most part. the combat was excellent, the cutscenes were great, and the graphics, while not fantastic, were just what i wanted (it runs better than DA:O). the only thing i didnt like is how locked down the demo was (no character customization, no inventory, no difficulty options...which was the biggest drawback for me because i suck)

the combat to me expecially was extremely entertaining. my only problem with the combat was the camera. its hard to control. i wish you could lock the camera at a certain angle, or at the very least, when you switch characters, get behind them so you know what you are aiming at. i kept switching to the mage and seeing the wall behind me. very annoying.

still. this will be a buy for me when it comes out. imma buy DA:O ultimate and play through that first (i beat the first DA:O and some of its dlc but never got to awakening)

 

Played this on my m11x and it ran very smoothly. Combat system felt very close to DA:O, I thought the quicker pace of battle felt more fluid and smooth than the first one. My first playthrough was as a tank and will try a couple more with Rogue and Mage. With sword and board, it played almost exactly the same as the first game. With my character sharing a lot of the same skills but with the added benefit of a sprint sort of move to close to distance with mobs. DA:O veterans should feel right at home. Strategic pause was still there, and I was able to zoom out pretty comfortably to view the entire battlefield.

I really like the new looks of some old friends we met from DA:O. Not going to spoil anything but I felt that some important plot characters from the first one looked a bit too much like generic NPCs, and were given much more distinguishable characteristics (if you know what I mean). Not all the skill trees were open for us to mess around with but I like what I saw. Companions get a personalized spec just for them and browsing through the skills the cross-class interactions look like they will be fun to experiment with.

Definitely was a lot of cutscenes at the start, won't know for sure if this will extend into the main campaign. Personally while they are well done, I hope the ratio of gameplay to cutscene is more balanced throughout the entire game. I do like the new UI, but I can see how some people would think the aero style skin would seem out of place in the Dragon Age universe. For the most part it's very similar to the first game except with a different style skin and some things moved around.

From the few conversations they put in the demo, it doesn't seem like the convo wheel really makes that much of a difference. You can still investigate and ask the important plot details, and responses aren't all that different from the first game except that you can actually hear your character say the line.

Graphically under DX9 I would say that it is pretty much the same as the first game, but the improved stylization of the characters and armor makes DA2 look better. I'll try DX11 tomorrow after work on my desktop, hardforum has mixed reactions to whether or not you can actually tell a difference though.

 

The DX11 renderer is broken. Peformance will be abysmal unless the raw power of the GPU is enough to get good FPS even with the crap optimization. Bioware said they would fix this in the final version of the game.

 

Bleh... it looked pretty, but it felt like there really isn't much beyond the sheer newness of it. I know it's just the demo but it really reminded me of the first bit of DAO:awakening - very bland, linear, unchallenging. The combat system honestly reminded me of an rpg from about 10 yrs ago; yes it works, yes it's easy to learn, yes it looks nice. It is not innovative, it's not interesting after more than a few hours (speaking from experience here, it's more of a chore, and when it's simple you ask "why didn't they just include an automate function?").

Fwiw, I played a rogue the first time I ever played DAO, and I remember thinking during the origins part, "man I wish I rolled a mage, this is pretty hard and not very rewarding" - I stuck with the rogue and none of my other chars ever quite lived up to the experience I had with the rogue. I didn't get that with this, it felt like no matter what you picked you would steamroll on through without so much as a bump.

@prz:

Yup, I felt that too. It was like they were trying to make it a bit more realistic (most people do in fact have to ramp up from walking to running irl), but it just does not work.

 

I enjoyed the demo can't wait till March 8th and it played fine on my T400.

 

I've played the demo as a mage. Here are my (quick) impressions:
The good:
+ Graphics: Definitely a huge improvement from DAO. Cutscenes are nicer and camera movement (during cutscenes) is a nice addition.
+ Gameplay: Like already mentioned it is faster and flashier. Strategy is still necessary (more comments at the end).
+ Story: Definitely looks interesting, especially since it starts in relation with DAO previous events.
+ I think the answer choices system is very good: the good guy, the bad guy, and the Alistair/Morrigan guy. Definitely a plus.

The questionables: (I can't say bad since this is a DEMO and not the final version):
? Strategy remains to be seen. I mean, strategy to confront low level guys is never neccesary.
? Specializations: I know this is a demo but I am worried if specializations will become blurried and become just skill trees.
? No friendly fire. This was a distinguished feature of DAO and palyed importantly in the strategy of spellcasting. I hope it will be there in the final version.
? Too many loading times even within cutscenes. I hope this is just the demo.

 

Played through a quick game with a male warrior (always my first choice). Everything was a bit weird to me when I stared playing and it took a while to get used to everything again since I havent played DA for a while now. Everything was pretty good though once I got used to it.

My only gripes are:
- The default angle of the camera is weird to me. I wish I could control the it. I don't see any reason why not.
- The transitions of cut scenes are not smooth for some reason, they even load in the middle of a conversaton for some reason.
- Like many others have said before me, they locked features for no apparent reason.
- I don't like the dwarf character.

That's pretty much it. I like it, and will definitely play it when the game comes out.

 

Demo kept freezing on me after the cutscene with the couple being attacked so I don't know if there's more to it. From what I did play, I definitely miss the overhead view - don't know if it'll be in the full game. Not really digging the new combat either. All the regular attacks seem like they should be doing major damage. It's not a major gripe, but it does detract from the feel of the game.

 

Well, you can use some strategy versus the Ogre in the non-exaggerated part, and against the final boss just before the demo ends.

Specializations are skill trees in and of themselves.. For example, a blood mage specialization will give you passive bonuses when unlocked itself, and it will have 10 skills (well, 10 including the skills and the upgrades) to pick within the blood-mage tree. I think the devs have said that they will make the specializations count, though, but it remains to be seen.

As for friendly fire - in the final game, if you play on Hard, FF will be on 50% (but mind, for all abilities, not just damage magics, but two-hander sweeps, rogue AoE stuff, mind blasts, etc. And on nightmare, FF will be on 100%.

And yeah, the loading on cutscenes was a tad annoying, I hope it's gone in the real game as well.

 

You can control the camera view me thinks.. Just hold the right mouse button down and you can swing the camera around to any way you like, even the overhead view.

I've also read that dx11 isn't fully supported in the demo and has stability issues, so perhaps it's best to stick with dx9 for now.. (although I played it on dx11 no problems at all 40-60fps on my desktop )

 

it's kind of like how ME2 followed from ME1. except the graphics didn't get much better.
okay game. not as serious as DAO. i preordered DAO and ME2, i won't be preordering this. i will get it when it's cheaper though.

 

The DX11 mode is currently broke and doesn't work, turn it back to DX9 and you will get past that point.

 

I somehow doubt that you've even tried the demo. You've been trolling DA2 from day one.

How about you form your own opinion? Otherwise, just stop posting in Dragon Age 2 threads. You've made it quite clear, that the game will neverr get a fair shot with you.

----------

Anyway, on to my impressions. I came in to the demo very skeptically and almost skipped it, for fear that it would make me question my preorder.

I do like how much improved the combat animations are, but there is definitely a sense of weightlessness. It doesn't bother me though, at least not enough to ruin the immersion.

Dialogue is pretty much the standard fair for Bioware, but the wheel is a better version of the one from Mass Effect. Peaceful, Sarcastic/Joking, or Aggressive works well, and each NPC responds differently. One may lke brute force, while another appreciates a good joke.

I was afraid to hit a spoiler, so I only played the intro section. That was enough for me, to decide that I made the right decision in preorderig the Signature Edition. The bottom line is that I see no reason to believe, that someone who liked Dragon Age: Origins PC as much as me won't enjoy the sequel just as much.

But I can't believe the console version doesn't have auto-attack. Having to button mash through combat would get old very quickly.

 

There will be friendly fire in the final version, as the demo was locked on Normal difficulty as I stated before.

You can change the camera angle if you hold right mouse and drag. I don't like the default angle either, so I changed it.

I also had the loading with the cutscenes, but never in the middle of a conversation. I hope that doesn't ever happen, it would take some immersion out

 

RE: Friendly Fire

I'm very disappointed in Bioware's decision to lock FF to Nightmare only. Laidlaw said that Normal on PC was more like Hard mode. C'mon son.

 

I thought the demo was nice, I very much like the new combat. I wasn't the biggest fan of DA:O and part of that was the insanely slow paced combat (do I really need to pause when my warrior takes a 45 second break in between swings?). I very much enjoyed the newer, faster paced combat.

I also noticed, at least on the demo, that it ran quite a bit better than DA:O. We'll see if this is true when it releases, but I was tired of all the slow downs and poor optimization in DA:O.

 

games have gotten easier over the years. BG1, FO1 normal mode is harder than most modern games on hard.

on DA2, you're right that the animation looks more fluid but not better. the rouge looks like his swinging chopsticks instead of short swords.

 

Can I just say that Flemeth'snew design looked freaking bad*** as heck?

 

Agree with you there Kevin lol.

Combat does feel weird coming from DA:O. No numbers popping up made the battles feel like a semi hack and slash title.

 

From the option screen it looks like numbers will be possible, just another thing they locked out of the demo.

 

I want my numbers back. Also How do you put the tactical view to the level it is in DA:O? Even when fully zoomed out , I can't see enough of the battlefield to my taste...

 

You can see the options for damage # and status effects in this screen.

 

This game is actually really nice! And runs at nice 20-30FPS stable never dropping to 1x. DX11 at High settings @ 1080p

 

Ah, thanks. I'll try it again if I can muster some motivation. I'm tired of going through that "power testing" level.

 

I played this demo on my 360. IMO is was SOOO boring! I thought BioWare made RPGs? This seems like a super repetitive hack 'n' slash game...

 

I also think this is a step backwards.

Action is too fast, and everything is so flashy. Rogues are not supposed to just disappear into a puff of smoke then reappear on the other side. There's supposed to be stealth for that.

And mighty blow is not supposed to be some overpowered 1 hit kill... etc.

Also the mage bolts look like some Korean MMO with those stupid poses.

The rogue combo thing reminds me of Titan Quest, where you build up something with each attack.

Pretty sure it was made to appeal to the general public again, and ignore anyone who really wants a true RPG.

 

I see, at the very least they left this in.

Just hope the game isn't as bug filled upon release as DAO.

 

characters are flying around the battlefield making strategy impossible in some cases. A basic strategy in origins was that you would position the rogue behind the enemy, aggro the warrior, and have your rangers stay back. Now its impossible to control who goes where with everyone doing backflips and disappearing. I really didn't feel any difference between the warrior and the rogue in terms of gameplay style.

Origins was sooo good .Why couldn't they just expand Dragon Age 2 off Origins rather remake the game with all the flashiness and console love.

 

Tried it.

Thoughts

As with the others

the fastness of the attacks takes away a LOT of the realism which made DA:O Great.

Also It makes it look like normal attacks are worthless or the enemies have TONS of HP. Kinda like MMOs where you just stand and attack for a while while performing spells.

The story isnt shown much yet but the time line looks like the same as Origins.

Graphics I like the Art Style here than DA:O. Although when running, it feels like the character is gliding....

Oh The engine is quite optimized

 

Played Rouge yesterday
Impressions - so-so. Just seemed a dumbed down Origins, i know its aiming to make the 'console' players find it easier to play than the first but I absolutely loved DAO, yes it had flaws but it was still such an involving, epic game, logged many hours playing and was hoping for more of the same with this (yet with improved graphics etc). Seems like its taken away what i loved in Origins in favour of a more ''mash 'A' button'' style. had it on pre order for a while though. Hoping that once involved in the actual game it gets a LOT better....hoping!

 

This seems like ME series. ME1 had epic storyline, ME2 came with better engine and no story at all (please, that stupid boss at the end was pathetic, and the planet scan thing was the most stupid thing I've seen in a game).
I would choose ME1 over 2 anytime of the day.

 

Forgot this

Played on a 6850(underclocked for testing reasons)and a Athlon II x3 3.0 Ghz

High with DX 11 mode 1440x900 resolution

60 FPS all throughtout the game. Will try again to confirm this.

ON my Acer 522
C-50 1.0 Ghz 6250

I felt like DX 11 mode in 800x600 low settings has a smoother feel than DX9.

Min 10 FPS when you are in the middle of a spell

AVG 15-18 When you are surrounded by 5 enemies with no spells occuring

Max 24 When you are all alone or facing few enemies.

It was in Top Down View most of the time and a little bit of 3rd person when all enemies within my range are already dead.

So it was playable for me since DA2 isnt really about the graphics anyway but story

 

Why are you still trolling, without ever having played the demo. Your "I know people who don't like it" schtick is getting really old.

Either try the demo for yourself, or stay out of Dragon Age 2 threads.

C'mon ziddy, this is a low point, even for you.

 

Is he ziddy?

On topic: It is clear there are some concerns on trade offs with respect to DAO. I think, given how close is the release, just take the demo as a grain of salt and wait until the game is released.

 

maybe he has tried the demo and didn't like it. also, i'm one of the people who didn't like it, am i trolling now?
he's made it quite clear about the dmc style animation, and simplified game play. no rouge positioning, warrior tanking etc. it's degenerated to 'something awesome happens every time you click a button'.

 

Personally, i liked the demo, however most the issues pointed here are valid in my opinion. While i don't mind the faster paced action, i mourn the loss of the need for positioning like in DAO. I'll wait to see how the rogue turns out in the finished game. I'm glad to see the option for damage numbers there even though we can't enable it.

I've tried the demo on both PC and PS3 and this definitely feels more like a console game than a PC game this time around.

Still, I'm confident i will enjoy the game since i also like hack and slash games (yup it does feel more like a h&s), we'll what the story holds though.