Gameplay is great. The story and characters, not so...
First of all, I have to say the gameplay in DOA is very good. Not a revolution, but still what does what it has to do very nicely. The difficulty does tend to be very hard at times even early on in the game, but still, not many complaints in the gameplay department. The different origin stories for different player races were a nice touch.
Graphics: Well, as almost everyone knows, the graphics in DOA are nothing to write home about. Yes, they can be pretty in many places, but there's nothing great about them, considering it came out in 2009. The player character runs in a very natural way, but otherwise the animation in the game is not so good. But overall the graphics are pleasing to the eye.
Now come the bad, or should I say not so good, parts.
Story: The story in the game is the same old clichéd 'save the world from the monsters', that will not surprise anyone (except someone who's playing an RPG for the first time). The lore of Ferelden (the kingdom in which DOA is set) is something the writers took a lot of care about, and it shows. It's a rich history of the world that's described in the game. However, there's nothing in the story that actually stuck with me after I finished the game.
The characters are okay, with Alistair, Morrigan and Leliana being standouts. Morrigan is specially interesting, with her wit and sharp tongue. Of all the other characters, I only remember the name of Sten, who wasn't very interesting, but I somehow remember his name. I have completely forgotten the names of all the other characters, which goes to say how generic they all were.
The voice acting is good in parts, bad in some places, but okay overall. For example, Alistair acted pretty good for about 70% into the game, but when it came to the final and important part of the game, he just wasn't up to it. Morrigan was the best acted in the game. Coupled with her dialogue, she was the best character in the game.
I don't know what the reason is, but once I finished the game, I just didn't remember anything being great in it. I have played all Bioware RPGs more than once (KOTOR- 4 times, Mass Effect - 2 times, Baldur's Gate II - 3 times, Jade Empire - 3 times), but I'm pretty sure I won't be coming back to DOA again.
My verdict: A good enough experience for a single playthrough, but not much to keep me coming back (except for trying out the different origin stories).
To the Bioware team that made DOA: LEARN something from the Mass Effect team about story telling and characters!!