i think it WILL make a visual impact...
but from what the actual screenshots show, i guess it will...
The graphics look very awesome

hopefully the copy-protection is handled the same way as with Sins...  

appearance of Demigod changes when you take certain skills (like the catapult on one of the rook's towers), maybe with Items as well (nothing officially said yet I think) and iirc it is planned that the achievements/awards you got in Demigod-Multiplayer are shown in gameplay irrelevant but nice looking bonus monuments and customized appearance of Demigods (i.e. if you are top 10 Player your Demigod wears a gold crown or something like that - doubt that there will be really a crown, just so you get the idea).

@Thyalin I think they already said that there won't be any silly DRM thingies.

Personally I'd rather have 30 Demigods than 8 with pretty looking weapon changes..
And have 20 weapons instead of 3.
Since, if there are 8 demigods, and 3 weapons, that's 24 weapons that need models/textures/shaders/effects if applicable.

After all, the Rook has a big hammer, it fits it. So presumably any weapon it gets would be a hammer. While this may have the same stats across all Demigods, same effects, same bonuses, itd appear on the Rook as Hammer. A Torch for the Torch Bearer.

Now 30 demigods, 20 weapons, that's 600 that need models/textures/shaders/effects if applicable. That's a lotttt of work.. I wouldn't expect that.

It'd be doable if you had hammers, staves, swords, daggers, and so on which shared between them and the models just scaled to fit.. But it just wouldn't look right. Some of those weapons just wouldn't fit being weilded by some Demigods.

I know it's a month after you asked the question but....have you ever know SD to just publish something without getting their hands in it as well? Come on - that's where the awesome comes from.

I just added an icon. It makes me happy.