I've never done this before ever. Writing a game review. Thought I'd give it a try with a new game I simply can't put down. Just a note this is a review that is not going to spoil the story line for you. I'm only about 20% and about 10 levels into the game upon writing this anyway. I also played this game on PC.
It occurred to me that I haven't played a funner game for passing time and enjoying it since the MMO City of Heroes was out. It's been a week since it came out officially and I thought I'd throw my hat into review this game.
As of writing this piece I am 30 hours in and just finished up the first zone after the intro sequence. I decided to buy this game after watching a twitch live stream of the pre-release trial people had on xbone eaacess. Upon getting the game I found myself up till 4am planning out my story on the dragon age keep website which lets you tailor your DA:O and DA:2 story. Every little decision is in there right down to did you help the dog while at ostigar. I was thoroughly impressed with that whole process. You even get to watch an interactive flash movie of the choices you make to bring you up to speed with what happened in the two games before.I loaded in my storyline and then started the game.
The game started off likely enough almost as Fallout 3 in a way. Felt like just being thrown into the world. Then you kind of have to just piece the story together by yourself while responding the NPC's around you. You get this sense that the story around you is happening to you while you enter the game.
The graphics even on 360 make this game awesome. I don't know what wizardry Bioware employed to get the game even on 360 to look fantastic. The graphics on PC are insane. Right away the game detected my 3 monitor setup and scaled the game to the three monitor resolution across my 3 24" monitors. The graphics are almost too good.
The gameplay is much like DA2. Which is the only thing good about DA2. You're allowed to tailor your bar out but because this game is also on console you're limited to 8 powers only. That to me is the only draw back from DA:O on PC where you could have every single power and potion, and then some with space left over on the skill bar. The gameplay is very engaging the camera system they put in to get whatever perspective you want is great. You can play as a character just behind them in 3rd person like DA:O or you can take a 'God-like' look and jump outside third person and control the camera yourself. There's also combat pause as well just like the other DA's.
The sound is nothing short of a Star Wars movie. From the ambient yelling of combat to the epic fight scenes with dragons and such they really nail down good music and sound FX. Just a side note too in every bar there's a bard playing and there is something like 20+ songs to hear. It's pretty random what they play but the game keeps track of how many songs have been played.
The good things of this game is Bioware spared no expense on this game. They really took the time to deliver a very good game. Even though they are partnered with EA and tainted by that in a way they really took it upon themselves to polish this game before release. Lets give credit where credit is due. The game plays well although there is a few little bugs to work out. Sometimes the auto attack breaks but anybody serious into the combat will be micro-managing every single step those 4 combatants do anyway. The only other gripe in the game is that 8 skills at a time even though you can have nearly 20 powers in say a mage you can only use 8 at a time. For instance on my mage he only has 1 ice, 2 fire, 2 electricity, barrier, rez, and dispell on my skills bar.
In closing this game is great. It was a refreshing surprise to say the least that EA didn't @#$! it up and ruin this game. If you're craving an epic action adventure RPG then try this game out. This game is also replacing my need to skyrim which is saying alot since I have alot of time in that game.