Hawke's Adventure (formerly know as Dragon Age II) - Impressions! Mods!

[naednek]

Some video from the demo. Looks even more action-y than I thought it would.

Video 1
Video 2

Obviously spoiler-y for those who don't want to see the first several minutes of the game.

wow after watching the first few minutes of the first video, I have to say, I don't like what I'm seeing.  the landscape is bland, and while DA was a little over the top on violence, this is like Mortal Kombat over the top.  I think I'll be waiting for a good sale on this one.

[CeeKay]

demo details.

[CeeKay]

Some keys for the flash game beta:

http://APPS.FACEBOOK.COM/DRAGONAGELEGENDS

DLXD-YHZV-H8JM-J7N5
DLXD-YHZV-R84W-KDYV

Post if you use them!!!

thanks!  grabbed DLXD-YHZV-H8JM-J7N5

[EddieA]

Bioware has posted some information about the demo, including when it will be available -

PC – February 22 at 9am PST
Xbox 360 – February 22 between midnight and 2am PST
Playstation 3 users in North America – February 22 between 4pm and 8pm PST
Playstation 3 users outside North America -  February 23 between 4pm and 8pm GMT

[CeeKay]

coolness.  I may give the 360 version a spin if that's available first.

[CeeKay]

360 demo is almost 2 gigs, wonder if they'll compress the PC demo down a bit.

[cheeba]

There was apparently a leaked German demo around 1.78 gigs.

[Greggy_D]

LOL....I'm getting a 404 error on the demo webpage.  They must be getting hammered.

[TiLT]

Downloading at well over 1 MB/sec.

[Greggy_D]

Doh!  Of course it works now.

[TiLT]

Just finished the demo on the PC. No big surprises, but some of my thoughts are below:

• Great opening that sets the mood well.
• Good interaction during dialogue, a few steps above DA1.
• The graphics are bland and uninteresting. Characters are the best part, but they aren't much improved over the last game. Terrain is absolutely horrible. DA1 looked much, much better on the PC.
• Music is good, not surprisingly. Same style as the previous game.
• Voiceovers are hit and miss. Some were good, some were bad (the mother sounded anything but convincing in her delivery).
• The overhead view is useless since you can barely zoom out at all. I found myself handicapped by using it, and had to go back to the over-the-shoulder view to be able to do anything at all.
• Combat is indeed responsive, but some parts of the interface aren't. I still have no idea why the game occasionally refused to cast a spell when I pointed at the battlefield and clicked, or why the characters would often completely ignore my commands to drink potions, once leading to a character being knocked out of combat entirely.
• It seems the character you are controlling will stop attacking after he finishes a command such as casting a spell. This means you could right-click and enemy to attack it for a bit, cast fireball, then suddenly notice that your character is just standing around despite the enemy still being alive. I don't think the first game made this mistake.
• Fireballs are still useless against moving enemies, despite Bioware's promise that they had changed this part of the magic system. By the time the fireball reaches the target, the enemy has run way past it.
• The removal of friendly fire made playing as a mage pretty straightforward. I would usually just cast a spell right away once its cooldown was over. Positioning wasn't of much importance.
• The dialogue wheel is the exact same stuff we're used to from Mass Effect, and I don't like it. It conveys information to the player very well. In fact, it does so too well. As in Mass Effect, there's rarely any risk involved in conversation, as the game tells you what your dialogue choice means through icons, and the placement is such that you can just blindly click in the same place if you're trying to play a character personality consistently. This is one of my biggest annoyances with Mass Effect, and having Dragon Age adopting that flawed system is disappointing. It's not a *huge* issue, but it makes dialogue less dynamic to me.
• On the other hand, I like being able to hear the main character speak. It was always a bit jarring to just hear one side of the conversation in DA1.

Overall, the changes Bioware made seem to nearly exclusively make the PC version worse than DA1. There are a few exceptions, but this is the main trend. I'm going to purchase this anyway, but I'll have to force myself to forget what made DA1 so great if I'm going to have any chance of enjoying the sequel.

[Greggy_D]

Are there any spoliers in the demo?  I have not finished DA1 yet.

[TiLT]

Are there any spoliers in the demo?  I have not finished DA1 yet.

It only seems to spoil the Ostagar section of the first game.

[lex]

Are there any spoliers in the demo?  I have not finished DA1 yet.

It only seems to spoil the Ostagar section of the first game.

I suppose it may reveal something about Flemeth if you haven't gotten to that point yet.....

I don't really miss the overhead view.  I played it that way exclusively the first time around in DA:O, but I'm playing it again zoomed in all the way and it works just as well.

The character animations are definitely a lot better, but hopefully the terrain gets better as the game progresses.

The not attacking after a skill/spell thing.  I noticed that too, but then I noticed that for some of my characters in DA:O if the tactics weren't set up to tell it to attack an enemy or to attack the closest enemy?

overall, it's pre-ordered and it'll stay that way.

[Greggy_D]

Thanks, gents.   I am past that part already so I will fire up the demo.  If you finish the demo you "unlock a special weapon, Hayder's Razor, an ancient dwarven blade which increases health, mana, and combat abilities".

[CeeKay]

got the demo downloaded.  EA seemed slow so I stole bandwidth from the Netherlands using Gamershell.

[Greggy_D]

got the demo downloaded.  EA seemed slow so I stole bandwidth from the Netherlands using Gamershell.

I was getting abysmal DL rates from all Gamershell links (60k).  Went the Torrent route instead.

[CeeKay]

got the demo downloaded.  EA seemed slow so I stole bandwidth from the Netherlands using Gamershell.

I was getting abysmal DL rates from all Gamershell links (60k).  Went the Torrent route instead.

I was getting 500 to 600 from their Netherlands miror.  I think it was a new mirror, it wasn't there the first time I checked.

[CeeKay]

just found out they're telling people not to use DX11 with the demo:

The PC demo has known performance and stability issues with DirectX 11. These have been fixed in the final game.

We recommend that all users disable DirectX 11 while playing the demo, including those with high-end machines.

I guess that's probably why the demo just locked up my rig.

random thoughts:

graphics aren't bothering me as much as I thought they would.

is it my imagination, or did Bethany's breasts look bigger in the dwarf's initial tale?

not very impressed with the combat.

definitely bummed about the conversation wheel.  I agree with TiLT that there is no risk in picking the wrong statement.

cutscenes break the flow of the action a bit too much.

[Fuzzballx]

graphics dont bother me...much. 

Gameplay bothers me in every way.  I'm pretty muich shocked, stunned, and mortified by the demo.

I hate the conversation wheel.  It does NOT work for this like it did for Mass Effect 2.  I henceforth rename it to the FUCKING BULLSHIT wheel.

I hate the combat.  I swear to god, it's like any other japanese style kill a zillion people to beat the next level game in the world.  D&D my fat hairy ass.  WHAT THE FUCK.

I hate the story/writing/character interaction.  It's just completely CRAP of a start compared to any other bioware game EVER.   It's just CRAP.  I don't care about the characters at all.  I wish they'd all fucking die so we could get new ones.

This game sucks.  A LOT.

[theohall]

There is no risk in picking "bad" choices in the demo, because it's too short for any impact to be noticed.  I'd bet it has a larger impact in the full game, though, just like making wrong choices in DA1 could cause character's to leave your merry troupe.

[lex]

Just finished the demo on the PC. No big surprises, but some of my thoughts are below:

Fireballs are still useless against moving enemies, despite Bioware's promise that they had changed this part of the magic system. By the time the fireball reaches the target, the enemy has run way past it. [/li][/list]

This reminds me of the following quote from futurama - "Instead of shooting where I was, you should have shot where I was going to be."   

For the time being this works for fireballs and whatever projectile based attack in the game.

[Kevin Grey]

I quite liked the demo.  It honestly didn't feel very different than DA1 for me and I felt like the combat was more responsive but still providing plenty of tactical control. 

[CeeKay]

I see they didn't fix the 'weapons hovering a few inches off your back' look.  I also noticed there appeared to be no weapon in a certain characters hand in their last scene.

also, when did Flemeth gain some MILFiness?  maybe it was because she was wearing robes in the first game but she's got a rockin' bod.

[CeeKay]

also, did anyone else find the volume for peoples voices uneven?  The cutscenes with the interview were nice and loud, but outside of it everything was muted, and the in the part with Isabella I could barely hear what she said outside of conversations.

[Greggy_D]

graphics dont bother me...much.  

Gameplay bothers me in every way.  I'm pretty muich shocked, stunned, and mortified by the demo.

I hate the conversation wheel.  It does NOT work for this like it did for Mass Effect 2.  I henceforth rename it to the FUCKING BULLSHIT wheel.

I hate the combat.  I swear to god, it's like any other japanese style kill a zillion people to beat the next level game in the world.  D&D my fat hairy ass.  WHAT THE FUCK.

I hate the story/writing/character interaction.  It's just completely CRAP of a start compared to any other bioware game EVER.   It's just CRAP.  I don't care about the characters at all.  I wish they'd all fucking die so we could get new ones.

This game sucks.  A LOT.

This.  Wow....what a huge step backwards.  The entire game felt so disjointed.

And the irrelevant Dragon twice?  I honestly thought my PC burped and replayed the first Dragon appearance.  It looked like the same exact cutscene.

"OH no!!!   Another wave....here they come!!!!"

Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

The demo was terrible.

[CeeKay]

Then entire game felt so disjointed.

I'm guessing the part with Isabella was condensed to show off more, but they probably could have skipped all the exposition that they showed and just gone to the mission.

[Turtle]

Yeah, it shows the very first into levels, then a much later quest. Of course it will seem disjointed. There's a whole series of quests and character story between the two. Saying the entire game is something because of that is a little silly, even for a demo.

Sure, the game has waves of enemies. But let's face it, so did DAO people just didn't want to admit that their so called classic RPG.

Dialog wheels are also so amazingly different from 3-6+ dialog options on a list...

[CeeKay]

Sure, the game has waves of enemies. But let's face it, so did DAO people just didn't want to admit that their so called classic RPG.

honestly, I like the demo but I'm going to have to say it's much more obvious here than it ever was in DA1.  I cannot remember any instance in the first game where I even noticed extra enemies coming in while playing the first game, this time around it feels more like the Call of Duty enemy waves.

[Greggy_D]

this time around it feels more like the Call of Duty enemy waves.

Yep.

At least I earned Hayder's Razor for finishing the demo.  (-10 Stubble)

[CeeKay]

just checked then demo's file folder in my documents and was happy to see there was an override directory like they had in DA1.  I don't think they've put out any official word on a toolset other than there won't be one at launch but at least the basic setup looks the same.

[Sarkus]

is it my imagination, or did Bethany's breasts look bigger in the dwarf's initial tale?

I also noticed that.  I'm not sure if it's because the first tale is supposed to be exagerrated (and thus her breasts are as well) or if it's simply because she's wearing a different outfit then in the second version.  DAO had issues along the latter line.

cutscenes break the flow of the action a bit too much.

Supposedly the pause/loading thing is a technical issue they claim the released game won't have.

On the whole I was fine with what I saw.  The demo is pretty linear by default, so there isn't really any way to see what kind of choice you will actually have in the game.  Plus the mash-up of throwing all that together. 

[Ridah]

WOW.

I didn't play the first DA so I wasn't sure what to expect, and I don't know how much has changed, but that demo blew me away. Gorgeous graphics that ran smooth on my system, awesome combat, great voice acting and dialogue.

I will be getting this game. Goodbye Cataclysm!

[Razgon]

MASSIVE Cleavage  

I'll elaborate later, but man... I'm glad there was a demo, since I now know what to spend my money on, and its not the MASSIVE cleavage game.

And the combat? meh.

Action game with waves of enemies isnt my cup of tea, at least not as blatantly as its done here.

[jersoc]

EL OH EL, bioware. I feel validated now.

So apparently I got my ass to mars, because this world is bathed in fucking red sand or something. Oh, there's a hint black too. That's it, everything is red and black.

The combat, wtf? All along they were saying oh, it's not actiony at all. the fuck it isn't. The combat was ridiculously boring, ridiculously easy and just plain awful. I was seriously bored. Even diablo 3 has more depth than this garbage. The combat wasn't even fun to watch in the way witcher, or hell, even the first game was. You just run in, hit right click and go watch some porn or something more productive. They consoled the fuck out of this game through and through.

Dialogue, DEAR GOD. First of all they dumbed down the mass effect even more. Fuck, now you can plainly see that top=good middle=middle bottom=evil as the fucking colors change on the wheel. They aren't even acting like they are hiding it anymore. The voice acting was awful. Never once did they characters sound like they were OH SHIT WE GOTTA GET THE FUCK OUTTA DODGE WITH OUR LIVES. It was like, oh brother, tee hee, dont say that /giggle. Oh, let's not mention the guy that gets his armed whacked with a sword then is like. nah it's cool, just put a little bandaid and let's bounce. is this some shitty parody to mounty python? Oh yeah, despite all that he was like, BITCH ILL TAKE YOUR MAGE ASS SISTER DOWN. RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW! fuck those dark spawns. Really, bioware, really? Did they outsource the script to 5th grade class and gave them 2 hours? Speaking of which, were the graphics outsourced to the same class? christ.

Oh, let's not start with the jarring cut scenes that make no sense. Or the game crashed 4 times using DX11, the new awful UI. This is just...wtf?

Will wait for a 2 bucks xmas steam special. I wanted to like this, I enjoyed the first one despite the boring predictable plot, the shitty boring loot. The game was hard in a fair way, the dialogue was at least somewhat good, whiny douche bag alistair aside. But this just reeks of console pandering in every way. GTFO bioware. After mass effect we're done. Just don't fuck with 3.

[CeeKay]

EL OH EL, bioware. I feel validated now.

you probably would have felt validated if all they did wrong was misspell one word in the patch notes 

[Sarkus]

Did some of you guys actually play the demo to the end or what?  And were you paying attention?  I can understand that there are good reasons why someone wouldn't like where they've gone with DA2 - there are several legitimate complaints to be made.  But bitching about the environment as bland when the area in question (blight damaged Ferelden) is in all likliehood only going to appear in that small part of the game is a reach.  I'm not going to get all worked up about the tutorial area of a game.  And remember this as well - the first section of the demo is supposed to be an exagerrated retelling of events - that's why the enemies are easy and come in waves.  Even later, the whole point is to reinforce the endless swarm of the blight.  But keep in mind that this game isn't about the blight.  And finally, things happen differently depending on what class you are playing.  Guess what?  Mage sister doesn't die if you play a warrior, only if you play a mage and arm whacked guy can't fight if you are a warrior either.  It's basically an origin story - lite approach where things are different for each class.  

Like I said, there are legitimate things to be critical of, so let's hold off on the outrage rants that focus on the minor things that don't actually mean much.

[Razgon]

Oh, sorry - I thought I was describing my reaction to the demo that Bioware released feeling that it was a valid indcator of how the game was. They want to sell the game, right?

[TiLT]

Did some of you guys actually play the demo to the end or what?  And were you paying attention?  I can understand that there are good reasons why someone wouldn't like where they've gone with DA2 - there are several legitimate complaints to be made.  But bitching about the environment as bland when the area in question (blight damaged Ferelden) is in all likliehood only going to appear in that small part of the game is a reach.  I'm not going to get all worked up about the tutorial area of a game.  And remember this as well - the first section of the demo is supposed to be an exagerrated retelling of events - that's why the enemies are easy and come in waves.  Even later, the whole point is to reinforce the endless swarm of the blight.  But keep in mind that this game isn't about the blight.  And finally, things happen differently depending on what class you are playing.  Guess what?  Mage sister doesn't die if you play a warrior, only if you play a mage and arm whacked guy can't fight if you are a warrior either.  It's basically an origin story - lite approach where things are different for each class.  

Like I said, there are legitimate things to be critical of, so let's hold off on the outrage rants that focus on the minor things that don't actually mean much.

I don't think you understand the complaints.

Yes, the early environment is bland (blight or not), but so is Kirkwall. Everything is empty, simple in design, and feels uninspired.

I don't recall seeing people complain about the legendary tale part of the intro. There's waves of attackers in every part of the demo. Examples:

Spoiler for Hiden:

Pretty much every encounter with the darkspawn introduces new enemies halfway through the battles, appearing from both sides of your forces. In Kirkwall while fighting the boss, two waves of enemies will appear during the battle.

And what of the difference between who lives and dies in the intro? I don't recall seeing anyone complaining about that either. However, I've seen plenty of complaints that it was handled extremely poorly, particularly in the way the dialogue for that part is written, acted and animated.

I get the impression you either didn't read the complaints above properly, or you don't understand what they are about. We're all aware that this is a demo, and I'm sure we all realize the implications this has for how the story is told (FYI, there's only one part of the demo that is disjointed because we're skipping to another part of the full game. The rest is presented as it will be.).

I'm "outraged" because I had a bad feeling about the game based on what Bioware has told us about the changes, and playing the demo let me see with my own eyes exactly how those changes failed. I strongly suspect there will be public backlash because of all this, and Dragon Age 3 will have to end up finding a sweet spot between DA1 and 2.

[Sarkus]

Oh, sorry - I thought I was describing my reaction to the demo that Bioware released feeling that it was a valid indcator of how the game was. They want to sell the game, right?

Like I said, there are legitimate reasons to not like what the demo has to offer, which your (and others) posts have noted.  However, your discussion of waves of enemies ignores the later part of the demo where you are in Kirkwall, which plays out pretty much exactly like DAO did in terms of enemy numbers and tactics.  So I can only assume that part of your post refers only to the earlier part of the demo.  There's a context for that part of the demo that you are ignoring when you refer to "waves of enemies."