Dragon Age 2 Demo Impressions

Written 2/23/2011

Note: Screenshots and video taken from my machine.

Dragon Age 2 is nearly upon us, and I, for one, am excited! Rather, I was excited already, but now that I’ve played the demo, I’m REALLY excited and simply cannot wait to get my hands on the full game! If you’ve been reading my Dragon Age Origins and Awakening reviews, you will have surely seen the somewhat slow and methodical pace of the combat. I’m not saying it was bad by any stretch, but it did become tedious after a while; unless a particular fight was tactically difficult.

Dragon Age 2’s combat is much faster and more chaotic. Whenever this was first revealed I, like many others, worried that the game would no longer feel like Dragon Age due to the faster, more action oriented style. Luckily, this is the farthest thing from the truth. Considering that one of the recurring themes of Dragon Age is blood, the combat of Dragon Age 2 allows for much more copious amounts of it than Origins could ever hope to achieve. Skills are a great deal more fun to use in Dragon Age 2, and equally as powerful.

The visual style in Dragon Age 2 has also taken on more of paint-brushed look without sacrificing any necessary realism, and it looks fantastic! Sound is equally as stellar, especially since Hawke, the main character, is now fully voiced over along with the rest  of the cast. I do hope that the voice-acting volume is increased in the full game though, as it’s very quite in the demo. The story seems to take place in the very beginning of the game, or shortly thereafter. It doesn’t reveal too much, but does give a good glimpse into the main plot and a few of your party members. Conversations feel much more natural as well with the addition of the Mass Effect dialog wheel.

With all of that said, I did experience a few crashes during my experiments with the other classes, but I’m sure Bioware will have those issues fixed by the time the full game is released. Frame rate also stutters from time to time, but it’s not a massive issue either. Again, I’m sure it’ll be fixed by the full release. So if you have the game pre-ordered already or not, you should definitely try the demo. Especially since finishing the demo unlocks additional items in the full game. You can grab the demo from the official Dragon Age 2 site or FilePlanet.

Dragon Age 2 Demo Impressions: