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General discussion (archive)Dragon Age 2 demo review(921 posts)(921 posts)
(921 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted March 01, 2011
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Namur: Character Generation and difficulty level unlocked, DA2 demo mod.

Just tried a Fireball at Hawke's feet in Nightmare and...kaboom ;)
Yeah, I just played up to the end of the second ogre battle. Managed to get my Rogue waxed, as I wasn't paying enough attention. Bethany and Aveline made it through though. I didn't set any tactics, so Bethany lobbed a couple fireballs into the party, which contributed greatly to my Rogue's demise.
Posted March 01, 2011
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Coelocanth: ...Bethany lobbed a couple fireballs into the party, which contributed greatly to my Rogue's demise.
Oh yeah, unchecked field artillery with FF on tends to do that ;)

BTW, family members will have different appearances depending on which preset is chosen on CharGen, which is not important since the main point, i think, was to take a look at the sliders and world defining options.
Posted March 01, 2011
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Coelocanth: ...Bethany lobbed a couple fireballs into the party, which contributed greatly to my Rogue's demise.
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Namur: Oh yeah, unchecked field artillery with FF on tends to do that ;)

BTW, family members will have different appearances depending on which preset is chosen on CharGen, which is not important since the main point, i think, was to take a look at the sliders and world defining options.
Yeah, a lot of people seemed really pumped about being able to fiddle with the character creation options, but I don't care about that yet. I'll muck about with it when the game's released. What I really wanted was to see how Nightmare mode would play. Given the little bit I got a taste of this morning, I think I'll jump right into it when I get the game. Probably means I'll have to set some tactics though...
Posted March 01, 2011
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Coelocanth: Yeah, a lot of people seemed really pumped about being able to fiddle with the character creation options, but I don't care about that yet. I'll muck about with it when the game's released. What I really wanted was to see how Nightmare mode would play. Given the little bit I got a taste of this morning, I think I'll jump right into it when I get the game. Probably means I'll have to set some tactics though...
The demo was put togheter from an earlyer build and the modder had to make due with the toolset 'as is', so not much point in expecting miracles in terms of CC in the demo. Going over the sliders was worth it though.

Nightmare definitely puts a spin on combat and the main reason i give the mod a go. Thing is, i like to feel free to make mistakes on the first couple of playthoughs in terms of party balancing, abilities picks, tactics, gear, etc., but on the other hand no FF takes away most of the challenge so, yeah, tough call, although i'm still leaning to sticking with Normal first time around.

Still didn't jump on the Pre Order though, so the 'when' is still very much up in the air.
Post edited March 01, 2011 by Namur
Posted March 01, 2011
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Namur: Nightmare definitely puts a spin on combat and the main reason i give the mod a go.
My biggest question with Friendly Fire on, is : Is the game actually playable with it activated or does the 99% or the spells and ability become useless. Sadly the demo doesn't have enough available to answer that question...
Posted March 01, 2011
I personally hated the demo. Seemed like a generic hack and slash to me.
Posted March 01, 2011
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Gersen: My biggest question with Friendly Fire on, is : Is the game actually playable with it activated or does the 99% or the spells and ability become useless. Sadly the demo doesn't have enough available to answer that question...
AoE's don't become useless with FF on, provided you can adjust to the insane speed at which combat unfolds. Combat at this speed is ludicrous, not to mention it looks ridiculous (i feel like crying when i spot the skeletor darkspawn coming at my party like maniacal ape robots on crystal meth), but folks will adjust in no time once they get their hands on the full game. As a matter of fact i expect the first 'Nightmare Solo' guides to start popping up 2 or 3 days after game release ;)

Edit: The mod was updated to unlock inventory as well. There's no ivenntory during Varric's bs segment, but it becomes available after that.
Post edited March 01, 2011 by Namur
Posted March 01, 2011
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theshadowbrigade: I personally hated the demo. Seemed like a generic hack and slash to me.
I believe the whole point of the demo was to give a feel for the combat, so that's why it feels that way. It's odd, but I got the sense that there's actually going to be a pretty decent story to the game after playing the demo.
Posted March 02, 2011
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Namur: Nightmare definitely puts a spin on combat and the main reason i give the mod a go.
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Gersen: My biggest question with Friendly Fire on, is : Is the game actually playable with it activated or does the 99% or the spells and ability become useless. Sadly the demo doesn't have enough available to answer that question...
I was able to target AOE spells without hitting my tanks. You just have to know what the enemies are going to do. The game has a bright red circle in the area of effect, I suppose it might highlight companions that will be hit too, not sure. Besides, it looks like every warrior will likely have Stonewall so any tank in a blast can just stonewall.
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theshadowbrigade: I personally hated the demo. Seemed like a generic hack and slash to me.
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Coelocanth: I believe the whole point of the demo was to give a feel for the combat, so that's why it feels that way. It's odd, but I got the sense that there's actually going to be a pretty decent story to the game after playing the demo.
If the story clocks in at 15 hours I'm not sure what I think about it. It worked for Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, but that was an action platformer not a RPG.
Post edited March 02, 2011 by orcishgamer
Posted March 02, 2011
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Gersen: My biggest question with Friendly Fire on, is : Is the game actually playable with it activated or does the 99% or the spells and ability become useless. Sadly the demo doesn't have enough available to answer that question...
I believe it does, and the answer to your question is how much you want to micro-manage. Whenever your characters get a new ability its automatically added to their tactics with a predefined condition. Those auto tactics are programmed for normal-hard difficulty. They are NOT suitable for Nightmare/Friendly Fire.

If you want to play with friendly fire on, you need to either turn tactics completely off, or at least be prepared to heavily modify/manage them.

Manually targeting AoE's is easy enough, more so in the full version (proper AoE targeting camera). You get a circle indicating what will be hit, and those in the initial blast zone are highlighted as well.

The biggest difference to friendly fire from DA:Origins is that now, characters dynamically force-jump into the action. You either want to wait till your tanks/rogues are occupied so they're not jumping about or have their tactics set to passive so you can safely drop a fireball onto an approaching enemy without some hero leaping into the fire.

Also your warrior and rogue AoE's will fuck up your team mates too now. So awesome :)

Do not consider Nightmare Mode in the demo to be exactly like the full game. Nightmare mode and the other difficulties where tweaked right up to gold master and rebalancing/changes have occurred. This includes how much damage is taken from friendly fire, and how much healing, spells and potions do.
Post edited March 02, 2011 by Porkdish
Posted March 02, 2011
completed the demo yesterday on the ps3

I did not like it and I will not be buying it

I think that's about it
Posted March 02, 2011
I completed the demo on Nightmare as a 2H Warrior. It's alot harder, very very much harder lol

First attempt trying the Ogre. He downed my Hawke and Aveline. But not without losing 7/8s of his hp. Bethany had to kite him and 3 other Darkspawn around, casting Fireballs whenever up. Casted one wrong one on myself, Bethany died shortly after. Then it CTD. #$%#$^#$^!%

2nd attempt same thing, Hawke and Aveline down, Bethany took out the Ogre and the 3 remaining Darkspawn with Fireballs and projectiles.

The next battle wasn't as hard anymore. Although I lost Hawke and Aveline again. And again had to kite around with Bethany and that Dorf hunter and also that invincible Isabela kicking the crap outta him.
Posted March 02, 2011
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Gersen: My biggest question with Friendly Fire on, is : Is the game actually playable with it activated or does the 99% or the spells and ability become useless. Sadly the demo doesn't have enough available to answer that question...
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Porkdish: I believe it does, and the answer to your question is how much you want to micro-manage. Whenever your characters get a new ability its automatically added to their tactics with a predefined condition. Those auto tactics are programmed for normal-hard difficulty. They are NOT suitable for Nightmare/Friendly Fire.

If you want to play with friendly fire on, you need to either turn tactics completely off, or at least be prepared to heavily modify/manage them.

Manually targeting AoE's is easy enough, more so in the full version (proper AoE targeting camera). You get a circle indicating what will be hit, and those in the initial blast zone are highlighted as well.

The biggest difference to friendly fire from DA:Origins is that now, characters dynamically force-jump into the action. You either want to wait till your tanks/rogues are occupied so they're not jumping about or have their tactics set to passive so you can safely drop a fireball onto an approaching enemy without some hero leaping into the fire.

Also your warrior and rogue AoE's will fuck up your team mates too now. So awesome :)

Do not consider Nightmare Mode in the demo to be exactly like the full game. Nightmare mode and the other difficulties where tweaked right up to gold master and rebalancing/changes have occurred. This includes how much damage is taken from friendly fire, and how much healing, spells and potions do.
Because in the demo that healing spell was near useless with such a long cooldown (maybe not at a high level, no idea).
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cw8: I completed the demo on Nightmare as a 2H Warrior. It's alot harder, very very much harder lol

First attempt trying the Ogre. He downed my Hawke and Aveline. But not without losing 7/8s of his hp. Bethany had to kite him and 3 other Darkspawn around, casting Fireballs whenever up. Casted one wrong one on myself, Bethany died shortly after. Then it CTD. #$%#$^#$^!%

2nd attempt same thing, Hawke and Aveline down, Bethany took out the Ogre and the 3 remaining Darkspawn with Fireballs and projectiles.

The next battle wasn't as hard anymore. Although I lost Hawke and Aveline again. And again had to kite around with Bethany and that Dorf hunter and also that invincible Isabela kicking the crap outta him.
Use the frost spell to kite the Ogre, it will eventually kill him and you have time to normal attack. Use the fireball to deal with the adds. That's how I had to kill him, none of my tanks ever survived the Ogre, even with healing spell+potion use. I guess I suck at DA2 (and probably DA:O).
Post edited March 02, 2011 by orcishgamer
Posted March 02, 2011
I played around with the character creation last night. Loved it :D I know I remember reading that the siblings will change depending on how you customize your Hawke but I am assuming that only goes for the preset faces. It cracked me up completely to have my LadyHawke have red hair and green eyes while the rest of the family had brown hair and either blue or brown eyes.

I'm thinking about playing around with the difficulty sliders the next time I play, strongly considering trying hard first since normal isn't exactly tough once you get your tactics down. That'll probably decide what I play the actual game in.
Posted March 02, 2011
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orcishgamer: Use the frost spell to kite the Ogre, it will eventually kill him and you have time to normal attack. Use the fireball to deal with the adds. That's how I had to kill him, none of my tanks ever survived the Ogre, even with healing spell+potion use. I guess I suck at DA2 (and probably DA:O).
I didn't take the Winter's Grasp. I took the aura that gives +10% attack and +10 defense :D

DAO on Nightmare was easy because DAO had a short CD on heals. Also, you could just keep spamming different ranks of healing pots and they didn't share the same CD. Even so the CD is short.

DA2 on Nightmare has a 60 second CD on my heal spell, and a pretty long CD on pots.
I couldn't nuke the adds around the Ogre who are whacking Hawke and Aveline. One Fireball FF and my party goes to hell. I had to kite them around and cast.
Post edited March 02, 2011 by cw8
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This is my favourite topic
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General discussion (archive)Dragon Age 2 demo review(921 posts)(921 posts)
(921 posts)