I've played the demo with a female mage and was pleasantly surprised at how responsive and physically present the spells feel and act, but then I got to the Kirkwall section and got that dwarf rogue in the party (Varric, was it?), and controlled him for the rest of the demo because his skills were
awesome. I can sense a rogue Hawke in the near future.
Also I'm surprised that they've managed to make it more number-crunchy-munchy than DAO, but at the same time more hacky-slashy-evadey, all the while stripping away underused mechanics. It just feels very tight, and something that would suit me fine, though I can imagine it failing to satisfy both God of War and Baldur's Gate fans. The rogue seems particularly well-suited to this hybrid combat gameplay, so I'll go with that.
Pity about the graphics, though. About the only thing added is some sparse DirectX11 flashiness, the odd physics-reliant cape or lock of hair, and more convincing faces.
EDIT:
ravenshrike said:
cursedseishi said:
Sidenote, but who here loves the new look for Flemmeth? That generic NPC look they gave her for Origins just didn't do her any justice.
The reason she looks like that is because the entire game is being told from someone else's point of view. This is why Bethany's boobs are bigger in the first part of the demo. The dwarf in question never actually met Flemeth, unless she comes into play later in the game.
Oh, sweet. That unreliable narrator thing gives them quite a bit of freedom, and goes a long way to explain why the game looks more stylized than DAO. It's also a good reason for why the darkspawn look different - we can assume the dwarf has never actually seen one in person.