Get a peek at the Divinity II demo

Like a sick person who watches his heart transplant enter the gaping maw of a mutt, I’m unsure of how to react to the Xbox 360 Divinity II: Eco Draconis demo. Should I feel displeased, shocked, angered, or doomed? Or should I just wait until the full retail game hits the shelves? I’ll wait and reserve judgment.

But I do have some simple observations about the demo swirling around in my brain.

It doesn’t have a stable framerate. The cut-scenes are jumpy, the camera drags, and ambient animations have a certain electrical charge to them — animals and such jolt forward in bursts. The characters share this to a lesser degree, but it’s their depth that bothers me. The important characters didn’t sell me on their importance. The narrative in general seemed a bit light as well.

Of course, I’ll know for sure when the full game hits this January. If you’re interested in what the DII demo looks like, feel free to click on the above. You’ll notice I quit 23 minutes into it: I tired of trying to kill skeletons. There’s a good deal of content in the demo, and obviously I should have spent the time leveling my character.

So, what do you guys think? Have you bothered to give this a spin?