After completely missing out on Warren Spector’s keynote this morning, I was eager to move into the Exhibition Hall to get a crack at the playable demo of Dragon Age 2. The Destiny trailer that was released during GamesCom was more than enough to whet my DA appetite, especially after the slew of low quality DLC and the horror that was Dragon Age: Awakening.

However, I was determined to go into this demo with an open mind, open eyes, and wide open paws.

Two hours later and I was finally in.

Our presenter was all kinds of jazzed about Dragon Age 2. He spoke briefly about the main focuses for improvement over Dragon Age: Origins, including graphics, game play, and story. The Dragon Age team has stayed consistent and has kept almost 90% of the original staff, which will hopefully deliver the BioWare standard of quality. Having garnered an exorbitant amount of feedback from both the active community forums and the media, the Dragon Age team has promised that this will be “the most responsive game that BioWare has ever produced.”

The game engine itself has been given a massive overhaul, with graphics and with game play. The engine renders images quickly and crisply and one can see how the unified art direction played a major role in the design of characters and environments alike.

This was the world premiere of the female Hawk, the first look at the playable Rogue class, and the first time a Dragon Age game has been available on the PlayStation 3. In true trailblazer spirit, I chose to play the female Rogue Hawk on the PS3.  Unlike the first game where one usually spent an inexorable amount of time planning, strategizing, implementing, and sitting back to watch it all play out, Dragon Age 2 is all about “plan like a general and fight like a Spartan”.

Fight like a Spartan I did. Hawk’s agile fluid movements cut through Darkspawn like light sabre through a Clone. The radial tactics system is still readily available but it’s no longer as necessary as it used to be. Instead, it’s useful to plan out your party’s actions while your blades dance like a whirling Dervish. Your comrades in arms (your brother the warrior and your sister the apostate mage) are just as powerful. I’ll be interested to see just how many improvements will be made to the Mage class, as I often found mages wildly difficult to control in Dragon Age: Origins.

It was an exciting look at the first fifteen minutes of game play. I’m eager for the game’s release in early 2011.