Even despite a few bugs and "Zerg Rush" AI, this might be one of the greatest games ever made.
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Pros:
-Fantastic story, character development, and voice acting (mostly)
-The Soundtrack is unbelievably well done.
-Combat is thrilling and will sate your bloodlust.
-Skill trees are well done, with only a few "Why is this here" skills.
-Few "out of place" battles that occured in the NWN series. (such as the 50 men in a theif hideout in a small house.) You won't go "that doesn't make sense" here.
-Runs pretty well even at minimum specs.
-Looks alright, although my PC is no powerhouse.
-Great boss battles.
Cons:
-"Zerg Rush" enemy AI.
-Quantity over Quality with many enemies.
-Skill descriptions and tooltips are lacking.
-"Gambit-esque" system sometimes overrides human commands.
-Minor bugs here and there.
-You may forget that you have a job or need to eat.
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When I heard about this game a while back, i was frothing at the mouth. Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 are my holy grail of video gaming. The masters behind those two behemoths of RPG greatness strike again with Dragon Age: Origins.
DA:O does exactly what everyone expected it to, it tells a fantastic story while building a deep, dark world full of characters spanning the entire spectrum of attitudes. The extent to which Bioware went about creating this world is amazing. From legends, to backstory, to surrounding nations, to former kings... If you love to get immersed in a world, then you will emerge from your computer a few days after you start, thin from hunger and with a severe desire to piss. There is so much to discover, and so much lore to obtain, that it might as well be a novel in itself.
The characters are all fantastically crafted, each with their own quirks and charm. The building of relationships and so forth is pretty simple, and it would have been nice to see decisions having more weight (considering anything disagreed with was rather easily remedied by a single gift.) But it makes it interesting to see how your cohorts get along and how your decisions rub them. The romances are interesting, to say the least, pretty well done, and are peaked by a hilarious love scene that had me laughing. Got to love that PG-13 goodness and bad facial expressions.
The combat is everything that should be expected from a game of this caliber, but however, there are some issues that are rather glaring. Buffs and debuffs are largely a waste of time, and simply serve as stepping stones to healing spells of powerful nukes. Melee characters are extremely squishy early on, especially if you happen to wander into the wrong zone, and there are times when the "pre-set" commands you design override your given commands, which is frustrating. Overall, combat is solid were it not for the AI wanting to fight with you on occasion.
The enemy AI leaves much to be wanted, as instead of giving a challenge by tactics, it tends to be a "face an army with your group of four" zerg rush tactics. There are a few great exceptions to this, where a few boss fights lead to some great battles, but for the most part you have to lure out half the charging bad guys, kill those, heal up, rinse and repeat.
The difficulty curve tends to jump around, especially in the early stages where you have a ton of freedom and not a lot of guidance. If you run along with the "main story" right away, you'll find yourself struggling and always out of healing portices. Always teach your mage healing magic first, it will save you many headaches and reloads. Often times you'll plow through hordes of enemies, then get dropped in a few seconds by the next group. DA:O tends to like to drop small armies on your head at a moments notice. Some of the most annoying are in Denerim, where you can be caught during travel by around 20-25 soldiers, half of which are shooting arrows. You'll get wrecked pretty quickly if you don't have a good tank and a powerful mage. For the most part, however, it is right where it needs to be. Enough difficulty to be a challenge, but rarely enough to upset you.
In the end, you'll find many hard decisions, many extensive dungeons with interesting puzzles and difficult enemies, and a game that will leave you lacking sleep and wanting to call off work. This is a masterpiece, and were there just a little bit more to the AI, and the PC AI worked better, it would be perfection.
If you don't own this game yet and like RPG's, get it now!