Starts out slow but continually builds until the end
As far as visuals go, I was initially disappointed. Don't get me wrong...they are good. But with all of the hype the game received I thought that the graphics would be top of class. They turned out to be good and the environments seemed to get better as you went along. The blood splatter in that stays on all of your characters was a bit distracting during the game seeing as how there was no real point to it. I found myself paying more attention to the blood than the actual dialogue taking place in the cutscenes so I simply turned it off.
I am not against blood though people so don't go crazy on this review. I thought that the fighting mechanic was tight and once I got the hang of it...very engaging. The finishing moves in the battles are very gratifying and there is nothing like killing the darkspawn by cutting off their head. I wish it was easier to learn how to program certain characters or learn more about individual moves but I guess that comes with more time in the game.
I beat the game in about 50 hours with several of the side quests being done. I have to say that for the first 10-15 of those hours I was really just trying to figure out what I was doing or the game mechanics, maps, etc. I had to tell myself that it would get good because the reviews said so. After I broke 15 hours I started to run into darkspawn a little bit more and actual enemies to fight. This was a relief because I was on the brink of selling the game. That would have been a huge mistake. The game really picked up and started to play out really well with a great story line.
This game is awesome if you can get past the first few hours. If you know what you are doing I am sure you will be able to cut that number down drastically on a second playthrough. This is one of those rare games that you finish...and right as the credits finish you tell yourself, " I need to start another character right now and beat the game again."
Definitely worth the price tag, for how much time you will put into it. I am looking forward to the expansion.