Dragon Age 2 DEMO: First Impressions

Dragon Age 2 Demo dropped on the XBL Marketplace this morning. I had been playing Dragon Age 1 to gear up for the March 8th release. Total waste of time: DA2 is nothing like DA1.

Yes, Ferelden is there. So are those pesky Darkspawn, but the rest of the game is unrecognizable. The gameplay is ridiculously fast, reminds me of Ninety-Nine Nights. The character view angle is bothersome as well. Felt like I had totally lost my peripheral and I had a hard time “seeing” the enemy. The graphics and character modeling is reminiscent of Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth. Hair and makeup looks to be provided by Final Fantasy. So many cowlicks and flips!

The Demo takes you through the Champion’s flight from her home with flashbacks from a companion character named Varric imprisoned by the Chantry. His Jersey style is seriously art imitating life: slicked back hair complemented with major bling artfully slung over exposed hairy chesticles revealed by a deep V neck shirt. Varric sits pretty and tells the “legend” to a Chantry Warrior with *gasp* a horrible French accent. You fight with your family to get to Kirkland and are aided along the way by none other than Flemeth. Is this the past, present, or a concurrent storyline?

The familiar all in one back button based HUD is gone. Start button is the key to inventory, leveling up, journal, map and saving. Each has its own area now, so the ease of bouncing around with bumpers and triggers is gone.

The dialogue button is straight out of Mass Effect, including the Investigate option. The rounded disc is easier for quick picking. For someone like me who has wandering analog sticks, the disc dialogue means a lot of accidental choices.

Appearance modification is disabled for the demo, thankfully because I usually spend forty minutes getting that perfect before I even start the game! All the same options for adjustments seem to be present, down to the ear height and nose width. The characters details have improved dramatically: that gal you see in the cutscene is the same in gameplay.

Leveling up abilities uses a tree system instead of a straight one up line. Scavenging is simpler. No full screen contents menu – just a quick pop up with an easy grab. I can’t wait to woo the beautiful Isabella, she looks like the love child of Aunt Jemima and Jack Sparrow.

The Demo is short and sweet. Just enough to show me that Dragon Age 2 is an entirely new game. This isn’t tweaks like COD4 to MW2 – everything feels different, looks different, and plays different. From the menus to the dialogue and vamped up gameplay, Dragon Age 2 isn’t a sequel – it’s what we all dreamed Dragon Age could be.