Dragon Age Origins is one of those games you'll come back to in a decade and enjoy it more than you do now.
For players familar with Bioware games a great story and character development is simply expected. Though Dragon Age: Origins does deliver in that department. The story is compelling but much of the story's influence is lost as major quests do not seem to remotely influence others. Due to this the story itself feels modular and as a result less engaging and wrecks some of the narrative value of a good story.
The main thing though that DA:O excels at is sound. Not only does the superb soundtrack immerse you in the game but the excellent sound effects push every aspect from above average to superb. From hearing the fire crackle gently in the background will conversing with party members in camp to the sounds of a full-fledged tempest cast by your mage, the sound effects really immense the player.
However even the high quality sound effects and score cannot fully compensate for the almost tedium of ruthlessly crushing hordes of enemies that change very little throughout the game. Perhaps there are only a few relevant enemies at any given time but that still doesn't fully compensate for the awful feeling of fight deja vu.
Combat difficulty adds to the problem since on even the most challenging difficulties (Nightmare) the average baddie is so easy you get almost no pleasure from there defeat. The average fight is a cake walk. But throw in a boss and its like hitting a brick wall over and over again. Even on easier difficulties the bosses are insanely challenging. Difficulty should have been tweaked much better.
On the bright side though, combat mechanics are solid. Nothing can beat having your mage cast a blizzard or see thugs driven insane by his spells or a raging fire storm or shatter frozen Darkspawn into a million pieces. Non-magical combat isn't lacking either. The roars of rage and effort mixed with intense blows and interesting tactical elements of character class and specialization make combat a enjoy if a generally easy task.
In Dragon Age's favor the combat mechanics make up a lot for the large difficulty gap. Compared to many similar games like Dungeon Siege or Baldur's Gate, Dragon Age's combat far surpasses them. But if you are not a fan of that style of RPG combat then this game isn't for you.
The few noticeable problems Dragon Age has like difficulty and modular story design effect the game adversely but by no means overwhelm the solid combat mechanics, the quality soundtrack, superb voice acting or the exceptional plot. The game has you crushing hordes of insignificant enemies but its the little things like the sound effects and character development that truly make Dragon Age: Origins great.