There’s a bit of a time skip in Varric’s story towards the end of the demo, will gives a feel for how the game is likely to be a little less fluid than the first one. If it’s a good indication of how the story will skip forward each time Varric moves the story along, I’m not sure I care for it a ton. There’s a little cutscene – the artwork in these is a little more art, a little less fleshy-squishy CGI – and then you’re dropped down in the next bit of story. The first time was a bit jarring for me and the best I can hope for is that they’re either not all like that, or maybe I’ll just get used to them.
In the demo, after the fifteen or so minutes of game play I was used to from PAX, there’s just enough story to lead you into getting excited about what might be next for the future Champion of Kirkwall. You meet up with two ladies, one of whom will be familiar to anyone that played Origins, and another that I’m still a bit peeved didn’t have her own achievement in Origins. Both of whom are up to their usual tricks, as you’re quick to learn (and similarly, somewhere in an alternative universe, your warden is learning about them too).
The biggest changes that people coming from Dragon Age: Origins will notice isn’t the graphics update (it’s decent on the Xbox 360, but about what I’d expect from like The Sims 3 on my PC, really) but the navigation on menu screens and ability screens. Actually, my first thought upon seeing both my first CGI screen with Lady Hawke and the ability tree navigation later, were that they remind me TONS of Final Fantasy (X or X-2 specifically). The navigation won’t be out of place to fans of Mass Effect either but personally, I’m not a fan of the radial menu. I don’t necessarily mind it when choosing conversation options, though I liked the old style better (old school though it might be), but I really dislike it in the menu. Maybe it’s a nitpicky thing of me to do but when I go to the option screen, I expect certain things, and in a place like the main menu, there’s no need for radial selection over your basic list. The time it might save me from having to scroll down a list is so minimal it’s unnecessary. For leveling up abilities, there’s a sort of dress-sphere looking thing. Here’s where we could actually benefit from a list but instead, we have six areas to select with no real indication of what each of the six might be until you start drilling down into individual items. But, again, it’s not really helping speed things up in a way that keeps it from being frustrating.
In this case, you start the game with Hawke’s brother, sister and mother after they’ve escape the darkspawn ravaged Lothering. On the way they run into a Templar named Wesley and his wife, Avelline. This story is broken by the storyteller, a dwarf Varric, as he recounts Hawke’s story to Chantry Seeker, Cassandra. As part of this story mechanic (which when we get our hands on the full game will allow your course as Hawke to skip around a bit) means that Varric isn’t always telling the story exactly as it happened. When questioned by Cassandra, Varric will retell the scene, which results in playing through a battle more than once.
In the demo, I get the feeling the word visceral is supposed to mean that no matter what character I choose: warrior, rogue or mage, I’m going to be hitting things a lot more often. Or there’s a feeling implied that I’m more active. For instance, if you choose the mage, you’ll notice (if you played the previous game) that it’s not enough to point your mage at the right target and figure out what spell you want to cast when you have the lyrium (mana) for it. No, my mage lady Hawke needed my direction for every single magical strike from her staff and if the bad guys get too close, that equates to actual physical blows dealt by my staff. Maybe people (that aren’t me) enjoy this immense level of button pushing for what equates to an automatic hit. I however felt like not only was it completely unnecessary but it meant that Hawke took up way more attention that I’m used to spreading out amongst all my party members. In fact, I was so preoccupied with the annoying fact that I had to tell her to do everything, that I came up to one battle and had to play it OVER AND OVER again because everyone kept dying. On my like 10th play through (I’m not even exaggerating) I realized that my party mates weren’t really using their abilities with any sort of wisdom, or like, at all. If I left Hawke alone, she managed okay, which meant I ended up spending more time controlling someone other than the main character. Maybe in the full game, tactics will help this out a bit, but at the time it was pretty frustrating.
First, I am unapologetic about my love for . I’ve played it and Awakenings and even with Dragon Age II launches, I don’t think I’ll give up playing through Origins. I like it that much, so much I’ve got it for both Xbox 360 & PC (the PC one is the Ultimate Edition). Indeed, most of this I’ve been working on while waiting at load screens. So suffice to say, that my love of the first game had me pretty excited about the second one — my game is already pre-ordered. But, I have to be honest with myself here, Bioware hasn’t really set out to make an actual sequel to the first game. As they’ve talked about the follow-up game, the keyword has been visceral: they wanted to make Dragon Age II a more visceral experience. I don’t think the word implies what they want it to when it comes to the experience that Dragon Age II’s demo brought to the table. Visceral doesn’t mean more blood and gore – though there’s a slight improvement in graphics – it’s not necessarily more bloody that Origins.
I was going to hold off on talking about the demo because, let’s face it, I stood in line for two hours at PAX last fall to play the first 15 minutes of this game, which is pretty much exactly the beginning of the demo. and at first I didn’t think there was much more I wanted to add. But, I’ve played the whole thing, sat on my hands for two days and now there’s stuff I need to talk through.
Demo Review: Dragon Age II » Blog Archive » GamingAngels
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