[Therlun]

hiho, i'm the Therlun Boron spoke of.

and indeed, the demo did not make a very good impression on me (i even remembered playing it a loooong time ago, with the same result).

while i'm pretty sure not all of what i disliked is linked to missing game-knowledge, several things certainly are.
i dont think the manual alone will help much, though.

personally i dont need to see advanced game content (e.g. high level summons) to buy a game. i want to know what makes it a good game. and the demo completely fails here.

if it glances at PBEM-MP games-> great! but how should i know that before buying, if it is a real pain to arrange/start a MP session? (if it is possible with the demo at all)

if it has a very complex battle system with a distinctive balancing offering endless possibilities for army composition -> fantastic! but how shall i see that if in the most cases i dont even know if an attack/spell did any damage/use at all?

this and a hundred other little issues prevent me from liking dom2, simply because i dont understand/know them, and it is very difficult to find them out "by hand".

many of my problems with the game could probably be solved by playing a few sessions(full game) and the complete game documentation.
the point is, i cant be sure! perhaps the game is the confusing, fiddly mess the demo was (for me).

i dont know for sure how to solve the demo issue.
however i know it is pretty uninviting right now.