If you were around when I wrote up a preview for this game you may remember that I had pretty high expectations for it. After a slew of sleepless nights in front of my PlayStation and time spent looking at character builds online, I have come to my final conclusion on BioWare’s dark fantasy RPG. What makes this game so hard to come to a solid conclusion on is that for the most part, the content is there, it can just be difficult to use. Features are a plenty but often you’ll find yourself straining to use them, or disappointed that the game has made some decisions for you.

Any hardcore RPG fan is no doubt looking forward to character building  just as much as everything else, and the options are wide and varied in Dragon Age. You choose from 3 main classes: Rogue, Mage and Warrior. From there you move into building your characters more specifically through the many talent tree’s and specializations (additional tree’s you unlock throughout the game for the classes). It all feels pleasantly familiar to its spiritual counterpart, Baldur’s Gate. For those of you whom have never played Baldur’s Gate the tree’s can be compared to those of World of Warcraft or any other skill tree based RPG.

Unfortunately it falls short of letting you truly enjoy it all without multiple playthroughs. While you can level up all your party members manually, by the time you have a chance to dabble in your parties skills they’ve already allocated some of them, making it virtually impossible to spec your party exactly how you want. Of course this is but a small issue that wont apply to most players. The lack of being able to reset your skills and re-allocate them helps with the frustration, as skill descriptions aren’t all that informative.

Another area Dragon Age is lacking in is the graphical department. With visual gems like Mass Effect under BioWare’s belt it was really surprising that the same care wasn’t taken on a game that is close to, if not equal to, as anticipated as Mass Effect was. During game play this is less noticeable, but in cut scenes you can clearly see that the game could have used some more time under the virtual paintbrush. Its particularly disappointing since the screen shots for this game look absolutely gorgeous, and what we ended up receiving is not at all what we were advertised.

Combat is fairly well done but not without its faults. In the beginning it works very well, but as you get into the game and tactics become more and more important its sometimes frustrating to use. In short, you open up a radial menu in the middle of the screen which you can select items and skills from, and then use the middle of this menu to target your intended victim. In the heat of battle against a horde of foes it can be difficult to target who you want, or position your archer or mage without the rest of your party getting pummeled into the ground. The problem can be removed simply by getting used to it, while biting your tongue on the occasional cheap death. The tactics slots work well though, with your AI counterparts following them perfectly, so unless your in a boss encounter or fighting enemies way above your level, you’ll have little difficulty with the combat mechanics.

Finally we come to what BioWare is undoubtedly known for – Storytelling. The story is enjoyable and varied, with the moral choices never being plain black and white, good or bad, choices. Each of your party members will react differently depending on their personal values. For example, you choose to use forbidden magic to remove a demon from a young boy, one of you party members disagrees with your choice due to the fact that the magic is forbidden, while another agrees because it was for the right reasons.

Conversation is pulled right from Mass Effect, which is a good thing. Decisions you make have long term consequences, such as each of the six different origin stories, which are so much more then tutorials. I played a elf Rogue with his origin story being Dalish (one of two choices). I learned throughout the game how the majority of elves are oppressed and treated as slaves while the Dalish live on the move through forests refusing such a fate for themselves. Throughout the game I was mistaken for a slave or oppressed for my culture, sometimes leading to confrontation and separate story paths.

All and all BioWare has crafted an excellent game here, even with the little disappointments and frustrations along the way. The combat seems to be much easier to maneuver in the PC version (sporting the tactical top down camera angle), which is a piss off for console users whom are actually paying 10$ extra for less content. This game is excellent for any fan of BioWare’s RPG’s, and well worth the money and minor downfalls. An excellent addition to any collection.