RPG with a warrior/mage/thief WHAAAAAAAAAAA?
Party members can be gathered throughout the game, or forced upon you like the plague. either way you start the game with Alistair, who is whiny, complains a lot, and for all intensive purposes a polished playboy with the backbone of an infant. You will also acquire a mage by the name of Morrigan who has a set of girl balls and does not take flack from anyone, and is surprisingly easy to get into bed with. everyone one else is acquired through your actions and can be lost throughout the game. not Alistair though, no matter how hard you try, or had much you make him cry, the bastard will never go.
the main character can be either a mage, a warrior, or a rouge. this of course gives you options for each class. each class has skills that can be upgraded and abilities that can be preformed in battle. the leveling system was nice (if you never felt like there could have been more abilities available), and uses the stats of your character to allow certain skills to be acquired. there are two different skills. One is a generic skill set that gives you skills in crafting, persuasion, trap building and so on. these are used, for the most part, in the role playing of dragon age. The second set is determined by your class choice and provides ability's to use in battle. warriors hit things, rouges hit things, and mage's blow things to pieces. I found that the mage class is over powered, like it is in every fantasy role playing game, and inevitably you spend more time on that character then any other during fights. This still apply's if you created a warrior or a rouge, you will end up using Morrigan to save your party, over and over again. after you obtain the healer ability's this fact is graved in stone and wares done the idea of playing this game for a second play through. this is also supported by the fact that you can also level your party members as you see fit. to counter the mage's attack power, EA apparently made mage's squishy, and vulnerable to physical attacks. If this is true, I did not experience it. it is far too easy to keep your prize blight squashing mage alive, even if your entire party has been killed off.
even though dragon age lets your party roam around freely, you still feel like you have road signs posted every ten feet to remind you where to go. the world map makes this more apparent, but less annoying as the game progresses.
combat it enjoyable, but most of the specialty abilities or the rouge are neutralized and ineffective. you may flan and do more damage from behind enemies, but they most likely will die from a fireball before this effect will contribute any meaningful damage to the battle. traps are hard to use as enemies are not easy to kite around, and you have to level so high to be able to hide in combat to auto sneak that you probably be able to finish the battle faster by running in like a warrior. you can sneak in before the battle begins, but once you get your major kick ass one strike attack off, all the enemies are on you and drop you before your party can react. they of course stayed back, as to not give your presence away. what great friends, right?
through all of its flaws, Dragon age delivers a great experience with excellent dialog and writing. most people will play the game through, and then play the other five origins and call it a day, but their is more fun to have through multiple characters. I found the story to be interesting with different characters, but my friend could not make it though a second play through.
for everyone this game is a must play, but few people would make it a keeper. If you pick it up enjoy it, I did.