The first Dragon Age released to a whole lot of critical acclaim, but one thing kept coming up as negative. It was a dated game plain and simple. I remember seeing a page posting for Dragon Age back before the 360 launched if that is any indication of how long this game was being worked. Despite the age of the engine behind Dragon Age it certainly played well in spite of low quality graphics, and in some ways it was the sequel to Baldur's Gate II the hardcore fan had been wanting. So they feasted upon Dragon Age, and those who partook of the PC version were treated to a dessert of varying mods to make the game easier, harder, or just give you stuff to do.
Now on to Dragon Age II. Coming across previews the big thing I gathered from Bioware that they wanted to focus on for the sequel (besides building lore), was improving the fluidity of the combat. I played the first on PC, and combat was simply a question of selecting an enemy and going into auto-attack while activating your character's special abilities. If you were too far away your character just kind of shuffled his way towards an enemy, and bumped around people as he tried to fit his way in. Dragon Age II has ratcheted up the action by having you mash on an attack button to continue your assault. Once you're close enough to an enemy your character engages in some kind of animation to maneuver him into position a lot faster (warriors have charge ability called "Scythe"). To go along with this theme of more action the blood and dismemberment seem to be a lot greater (though the first did not lack for blood splatter), and the special abilities seem a lot more over the top. All this leaves me with much more of an action rpg feel, but I will have to check out the PC demo to see how these changes have effected the stop and pause tactical feel the first Dragon Age had.
Of course the graphics got an overhaul both technically, but also artistically. I struggle for a word to describe how I think of the graphics, but maybe smooth works. The game isn't pushing for a photo-realistic look so the artistic flair of the redesigned Qunari, or the re-worked Flemmeth model looks really nice, and I'd say gives them more character instead of just looking like any other NPC with maybe a unique hair style.
As far as what you will get to experience in the demo is a short two sections of game play with some of the back story thrown in. The first section I surmise is the beginning of the game which involves the main character, Hawke, and his family fleeing from Lothering at the time the Blight consumes in it in the first Dragon Age. The second game play piece takes place in a new location several levels on down the line in the city of Kirkwall.
Other changes to the game include being able to only play a human. This seems to be the trade-off you have to deal with to have a main character who has voice work as the day of the silent protagonist is pretty much dead (even my parents mocked the first Dragon Age for having no voice work). Dragon Age II has also adopted a Mass Effect style conversation wheel though it should be noted that the middle option seems to represent a sarcastic comment rather than the neutral choice in Mass Effect.
So will the hardcore folks who cut their teeth on the likes of Baldur's Gate be happy with the changes to the game play? Honestly I doubt it after having peeked at the Bioware forums every once in a while. The game is making a move toward more accessible game play, and broader appeal like Bioware is doing with the Mass Effect series. I can't say that I blame them. In this economic climate you have to be able to bring in a bigger audience to stay a viable studio development costs for these games being so high.
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