Ok I played the demo too, and my opinion differs a lot from yours. Though I'll admit at first I was very confused, but once you get used to the controls everything becomes a lot better. Also, from what I read on the official forums the demo's character development has been highly modified to make it easy to try out different skills. And in the full game "reviving" your character will give you an advance point penalty and you'll come back wounded and stunned. Now, what I thought of the game so far.
The graphics are nothing great but the game's far from ugly. But what I really love about this game is the combat, a lot of people complain about it but I honestly think fighting is a VERY fun thing in this game. Combat usually involves a lot of ennemies and it can get pretty chaotic at times, and you don't win by just clicking. You can do several "combos" by pressing on different movement keys while attacking, you can do front and side rolls to dodge ennemy attacks and you can bring your shield up to completely block an incoming attack (though the shield will break after too much hits, but so far I only lost one and it was against a big war troll) Then there are the spells, which I think are very cool. You got your usual magic missile and fireball, and some more exotic ones like ice shards which freezes your opponents. There are four schools of magic and most of them have a different to recharge "spells". Arcane and Celestial magic have a number of uses, which you get back with time (bigger spells take more time to recharge). Nether magic also has charges, but to get those back you have to mix some ingredients and "create" the spell. The last school, rune magic, works with mana. There are a number of Gods and each has his own mana pool, and spells require mana from different gods. Gods will regenerate mana overtime. While Arcane and Celestial magic seem pretty basic, Nether and Rune magic require a bit more of thinking before using, if you use all your monky palms to create a lot of Blade of Baal spells you won't be able to make any Nether Blast spells after, and if you cast Rune Strike a certain God might not have enough mana for your Rune Shield spell.
Another reason combat can be so fun is the level of satisfaction you get by beating that mob of goblins accompanied by a big bad War Troll who broke your shield with a mighty swing, or the "whew" you let out by barely dodging a huge ballista bolt that would have pushed you back across the whole room had it hit you in the chest, or even the "Muahahahahahaha!!" you say after blasting a dozen wolves with a single Blast Nova spell (careful though, that spell only has two charges at the start and takes a LOT of time to recharge).
Finding sexy equipment can be lots of fun too! When you successfully disarm a chest (disarming is a lot funner than it sounds too) and find a powerful Azure Sword or some imposing Great Sword, or when you dodge a goblin wizard's many fireballs to finally kill him and take his Burning Staff that sets on fire every ennemy you hit.
The demo's final battle involves a mob of goblins, the goblin wizard and war troll plus a goblin ballista firing at you from higher. The fight is quite challenging (try forgetting the revive button, or keep in mind that the full version of the game will give you a penalty for it and you will see the challenge) and very satisfying when you managed to clear the place.
Then, there's the multiplayer, and while many of you think this isn't a must, there's nothing quite like playing through a game alongside a good friend who'll comment with you on cool moments and who will accidentally shoot a few arrows at you while you try to block the war troll's massive punches (Yes there is "friendly fire" in that game)
I love this game, and I intend to buy it the day it comes out. I don't think I enjoyed playing a game with my brother this much since Serious Sam and Icewind Dale. Add in more races, more spells, more skills, more loot, more ennemies, more locales, some towns in which to trade and get some quests and add that darned map (which normally should exist, since they mention it in the help pop-up when you start, but for some reason doesn't work in the demo) and you'll get a very fun game to enjoy alone or better yet with a few of your friends.
Yes, it's hard to get into it at the start since you don't know what to do, but give the game a chance and look around and try stuff. Don't worry if things don't go as planned, reviving your character has no penalty in the demo.
Rythok
