Okay that was a good length demo.
Game has lot more particle effects moving about than its predecessor, they've certainly upped the ante in terms of the visual flair of abilities now. Sometimes you'll pause the game just to gawp at all the debris, magic and gore flying about the screen. Also added bump maps, specular maps, motion blur, etc. However, dx11 is not available in the demo. Definitely a step up from Origins.
Played the demo as a rogue, some gameplay points:
- you can now strafe around a targeted enemy just by pressing left/right movement buttons, there is no need to adjust position/view like in Origins.
- the timing of abilities are more important now, as some rogue skills enable you to outmanoeuvre an incoming attack, not just deal damage, e.g., backstab is an ability now: the rogue auto shifts behind an enemy and stabs him, so if an ogre is about to pummel you at that moment, he will miss
- archers auto melee if enemies get too close, no need for the player to switch weapons
- skill trees are similar to origins, but instead of linear progression, you can choose branching paths - most early abilities are the same as Origins, ie pommel strike, mind blast
- pausing is more useful playing on normal than in Origins as battles are quicker paced and it felt like ability cooldowns were shorter as well
Okay, now, combat definitely feels slightly different to Origins. There is a lot more to keep track of I feel, even though you only have a few abilities in the demo. The fact that battles are faster paced with a lot more animation cycles, not to mention that abilities feel weightier, coupled with the fact that smaller enemies fall quicker (but come more often) means you will always be navigating you're surroundings, putting more thought into your orders. Where Origins battle system harkens back to old-school mechanics, this feels like it takes those mechanics, decorates it with some contemporary ideas based on manoeuvring, hit-detection and animation, and modernises the system. It's up to your tastes if you think this is an embellishment or an upgrade. I'm tepidly leaning towards the latter.
Brief mention on the conversation system. I like it. It feels a lot more dynamic - shit actually happens and drama unfolds instead of half-heartedly going through a list of options with your index finger usually resting on the Esc key, as was the case in Origins. A lot more cinematic as expected.
Some screenshots I took
