Old school gameplay on current consoles...
One hugely acclaimed and successful game in this genre is Dungeon&Dragons and Baldurs Gate, which both offered very deep worlds and stories, great gameplay and lots of choices to make throughout and a lot of replay value. A different experience in every playthrough.
Dragon Age attacks the RPG segment with these exact characteristics. It is a compelling story, with great gameplay and terrific voice acting.
There are not many RPG's like this on consoles, mainly because console players are usually more casual players. Dragon Age's difficulty is pretty high and well above titles like Oblivion or Fallout 3. The game begins by selecting a class. You may choose from being a dwarf, an elf, a magi or human. The choice will determine some stats and skills and the game will start different for every class but the storyline will eventually pick up for all three classes in the same way. However, for each of these classes you may choose an origin. For example, a human noble begins the game as part of the royal family in one of the human cities, whereas the human commoner origin story begins on the streets of the city. These beginnings determine the background of the player's character prior to the main events of the game's story, forming an introduction to the world and the game itself.
The game is set in Ferelden, a mythic land where demonic creatures called deathspawn appear every hundreds of year. This attack of the deathspawn is called Blight. You will eventually join an order of warriors called the Grey Wardens, the heroes of past Blights. Trying to stop this new Blight at the beginning of the game, an alliance is formed but some betrayals occur and the king along with the Grey Wardens are killed in battle, while you and a fellow warrior remain the only Grey Wardens alive. It is your duty to stop this Blight and so the main quest begins, along with the game itself. The game is extremely long, more than 70 hours for the main quest and a lot more for all the side missions. In comparison to Oblivion or Fallout 3, this game has double the amount of hours of game. The plot is pretty hard to keep up with, if you are not used to such deep stories and so much dialogue, but Mass Effect fans should feel right at home. Even if the side quests appear to be more simple than the main quest, they still require a lot of time and attention. The game's difficulty is a little harsh on newcomers but this is very rewarding.
Even if you won't be good or evil, the choices you will make in the game will affect how the game plays. Bioware has made very deep stories and has always had great scripts and huge depth in their stories, and they don't disappoint in Dragon Age. The choices you make will be influencing your way around the world and how others react to your choices.
The gameplay is that of classic role playing games, much more simpler on the PC but the console versions work also very well. The 3rd person perspective is very good and works probably better on the consoles. The one thing that you won't be able to do on the consoles and only on the PC is to zoom in or out of the action. But that hasn't felt like a necessity. You will have three main attack buttons, to each of them having a specific action assigned. These can be changed and for more actions a similar system similar to the one from Mass Effect is used, where a dial appears and the action to perform is selected. It feels very good and it takes some time to get used to.
Visually the game looks pretty good. Of course there are better looking games, some may argue about the artistic design, but the truth is that Dragon Age captivates the world of Ferelden so well, that it makes it seem more real then Cyrodill or the Wasteland from Fallout 3. Even if you won't be able to go around the map like in other free roaming role playing games, the cities still seem to be very big and populated, and the amount of people to talk to is close to the one from Mass Effect. Everything looks good, but the game does feel outdated some times, and there are some frame rate drops, but overall the graphical experience is good throughout.
One of the best things about this game is the voice acting. Once again Bioware's work is top notch, the voices are great, and make the experience much greater. The sound and music are great as well, from the sound of a sword dashing into a darkspawn to the music playing in the backround when exploring a dark dungeon. The sound design is among the best in the industry and never disappoints. Everyone in the game has something to say and it never feels like the same voices have been used over and over again. You will hear new voices most of the time, even near the end of the game.
Dragon Age is a great game, but a hard one to recommend. It creates a beautiful world, it offers a great experience, it has a great design but may seem difficult to some players. It is harder than most of the console RPG's but give this game a few hours and it will suck you in. It is a great game, which truly bring old school role playing gameplay to current consoles.
My Score 9.1