The other day I was looking at my gaming collection, and really outlining what were my favorite titles? After picking out a few I asked myself what did these games have that others don’t. What it all came down to was Story and Environment. Essentially did the world really pull me in? Sense the early days of the Dragon Age announcements I’ve been waiting to take it for a spin, even going as far as reading the first book. Lucky for me my review copy came in and it was time to play. Does Dragon Age bring Story and Environment together to form a great game?

Gameplay

If you played a Bioware game you know a little bit on what to expect for gameplay. What I’m referring to is what Bioware is known for and that’s dialogue. The Dialogue system is this game is a little more varied then most games. Most your choices largely depends upon what Origin story you choose at the beginning of the game. The are 6 different stories to choose from. I myself went very generic with a Warrior Noble. The only downside to the Dialogue system was the lack of voice over for your character. At the beginning of the game you get to choose how your character sounds, I figured do to this option we would get full voice over. (i.e. Mass Effect) During the Dialogue points you read your text vs hearing a voice over. I got used to it pretty quickly and it sort of reminded me of the Legend of Zelda, how Link essentially is your hero and no one else’s. Each Character Class/Race has it’s benefits to a particular style of fighting. While the spell casters are ranged the warriors get right into the thick of things. I found it rather refreshing being able to switch between characters in my party. This gave me a chance to play all the Classes. As for the combat it’s broken up into a very World of Warcraft style. You essentially choose which person to attack and wait for the combat to be finished. During the combat you can do special moves/magic depending on your class. It took me a little while to get used to the system and even then if felt a bit overwhelming at times. The rest of the game is broken up into a variety of choices in how you would like to handle particular events. I found that Dragon Age really pushed this well. At times I was actually really thinking about the choices I made. There really wasn’t a clear cut Super Nice Guy in this game. There were a variety of choices that really kept me thinking.

Sound

This was an area I was a little concerned about. After watching trailers to the game featuring Mason, I was concerned that the music might go that way. Once the opening Logos were finished you are greeted by a nice soothing score. I really enjoyed the music to the game, felt like it had a nice soundtrack. It also really brought forth the feeling of being in a Medevil like time. The game also features full voice overs which generally were really spot on perfect. There were occasions where a character seemed a tad out of place but overall a solid Voice acting. My personal favorite was hearing Claudia Black (Officer Aeryn Sun from Farscape) in Dragon Age.

Graphics

As for graphics this was the only area the game seemed to be lacking. Now that’s not to say it’s the worse looking game I’ve played. The graphics were either spot on or just okay. The Character models looked excellent, and they really moved well. Though at times it seemed they really didn’t express emotion as well as Mass Effect did.

Overall

While not the best Bioware game I’ve played it certainly doesn’t disappoint. The story is really well laid out and there is tons of replay value in this game. Plus the length of the game certainly adds to it’s value, I’ve heard that there is over 100 hours of gameplay.