Dragon Age II Previews

Dragon Age II was on display at the recent Eurogamer Expo and a handful of sites offer impression pieces based on their time with the game.  God is a Geek.

The same good old story element which made Origins so successful is back. Players will once again have to converse with a multitude of characters and a number of dialogue options are at hand in helping you do that. A new system of dialogue symbols is in place to show players exactly which each dialogue option entails. For example, a funny option will show a jesters face to ensure even the most simple minded gamer will understand what they are about to do.

This is part of Bioware’s dumbing down process to ensure that not only the (hardcore) gamers can properly experience this epic journey through Ferelden and beyond.

Xboxer 360.

From what I saw it appears that the Darkspawn are back and totally redesigned; looking more like Skeletor, rather than a lump of snot after a heavy nights drinking. I also saw the return of Flemeth, the Witch of the Wilds, and I will tell you one thing: she got hot! Not in a super obvious Lara Croft way but more in a (stay after school for some sexy detention) style. She seemed more than willing to help our hero Hawke, whose only information I could gather was a survivor of the Blight, and that his old village of Kirkwall had been destroyed by something or another, which gives him right to be angry and grow a beard.

Critical Gamer.

I hope this isn’t the finished product because the graphics in the cut scenes need sharpening up. There were plenty of blocky, jagged lines in every one, though the emotional expressions on the characters in those scenes looked really impressive, enigmatic even at times.

At least standing in the queue gave me an opportunity to see the differences between each character’s storyline, and I can’t say there was much of a difference to any of them in this demo. It’s completely linear, funnelling you along a path, popping up Hurlocks along the way, giving you a big, meaty Ogre to have a go at, adding new members to your team as you go and letting you jump from each one at will. Magic or sword, speed or strength, you had all the options at your finger tips for every fight.

The Ogre was having a few problems, getting stuck mid-charge in a boulder but still running away like mad as if he’s doing the ogre Moonwalk. Then after a bit of this chopping and hacking a Dragon/woman shows up, flame grills all the bad guys and hands you a mission. And that’s all you get. It wasn’t exciting, thrilling or any other ing with a positive word in front of it. It was, to be frank, pretty standard gaming.