Finally got Dragon Age up and running on my system at home. Can’t play this thing at The Bunker as I keep getting interrupted. Here’s what I think so far (I’m only 10% of the way through):

1)      The game started on a slow note. I was initially peeved at having limited choices with regards to choice of race and class but later realized it’s much deeper than it looks at first.

2)      The engine looks a little dated, surprising seeing as how it’s been launched so much later after Mass Effect.

3)      The mouse scroll to change between old school isometric and third person view works well. I do wish that you could pull back the camera a tad bit more in isometric though.

4)      Nice take on lore here. Elves as a slave race? Wow. And humans are absolute pricks (No surprises there).

5)      Voice acting is spot on. Bioware does know how to inject personality into everyone you meet, even non essential characters.

6)      Hmm… the videos could have used some more work; the central character never speaks in cut scenes. And even NPC facial animations seem a little off. This seems like a step back after Mass Effect’s cinematics. No biggie however.

7)      There is some heavy Lord of the Rings influences in the game (Don’t worry, it’s all good).

8)      The world seems alive. There’s a lot of history here and tomes full of lore. Well done devs!

9)      Combat is no cake walk. Diablo fans should start worrying. Hack and slash tactics will get you killed every time. It’s more akin to chess. All the pieces need to be placed right. Positioning is everything here. It’s tempting to call the battles hard but that would not be accurate. It’s challenging sure but not difficult if you know what you are doing. Baldur’s Gate fans will feel right at home. Backstabs FTW!

10)   Party members seem interesting enough. It’s becoming clear that keeping all of them happy is not going to be easy. Excellent.

All in all Bioware seems to have delivered another winner. The full review might take a while as I can already see this is going to be a long game. There have already been some interesting plot twists and I find myself getting sucked into the world completely.

For Ferelden!