Taken on its own, Dragon Age is an enjoyable RPG experience. It combines a solid storyline, memorable characters, and readily accessible game play mechanics. It is impossible, however, to not compare Dragon Age to the legacy of fantasy RPGs that have preceded it, notably the Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights series upon which Dragon Age draws so much inspiration. In many ways I look at Dragon Age as a natural progression from these previous titles. It makes some improvements, some concessions, and delivers an overall wonderful and accessible experience.

The rules behind the game are perhaps the most streamlined ever in a Bioware RPG. Skill points are replaced by a small group of skills each having four ranks, attributes are scaled up much higher, and ability trees are handled as they were in KOTOR. It's hard to imagine how long Bioware has gone without the D&D license thanks to Atari's ownership of it, but I wonder if they would even want to use it given how well they're developing their games without it. Yes, it lacks the depth that the full D&D suite offers, but the accessibility of the system makes up for it as players generally aren't hamstrung into specific paths based on their initial class selection. You don't need a given class to complete the game, but it certainly helps to have a rogue in the group for locks and traps, have a mage serve as the healer (which only requires them to spend one skill point to do), and make a fighter or arcane warrior act as the group tank.

The biggest discrepancy in Dragon Age comes from the stark differences in quality of the storyline and characters that accompany on your journey. If there's one glaring weakness in the game it is that the storyline offers nothing new or exciting to the genre, but rather a retread perpetrated countless times before by authors far less prestigious than Bioware. The sides of good and evil are established immediately and most of the major plot twists are taken care of soon thereafter. The core storyline acts as little more than an impetus for the quests to come, something I would more likely see in an action RPG or a MMO. The ultimate evil in the game, the Archdemon, is something only spoken about in whispers until the very end, offers nothing for the player to identify with other than sending hordes of minions at you, and as a result is grossly overshadowed by the other main antagonist of the game, Logaihn, who himself isn't very special. Everything elsewhere in the game is mostly self-contained within each dungeon hub, with bosses given little introduction before opening themselves up for your killing pleasure. I felt more like a medieval exterminator rather than a conquering hero, cleaning up everyone's mess so they'd like me enough to charge into battle against the great evil at the end. The course taken by many of these self-contained plotlines are good, such as the Anvil of the Void and the Werewolf curse, but as a whole the game is not on as high a level as KOTOR, nor does it have an antagonist as great as in BG2. The blight was never a factor anywhere except the beginning and end of the game, and for me that caused overall game to suffer.

I'm not qualified enough to question Bioware's design choices, but I thought a great addition would have been to make Duncan the reason behind your betrayal in the Origins storyline rather than just the end result. Coming to the realization that he would go to such lengths as orchestrate the murder of your family in order to force you into the service of the Grey Wardens would have made the situation far more intense.

The game succeeds, however, because it has one of the strongest supporting casts I have ever seen in a RPG. Each character has a developed back story, a unique personality, and contributes to the enjoyment of the game in some way. You can tell Bioware spent a great deal of time on the miscellaneous interactions between each character, whether directly with the player or between each other while traveling about the landscape. Dragon Age is a hilarious game thanks to the constant bickering and joking amongst the party. Whether it is Morrigan being mocked for her coldness, Alistair teased about his ignorance, or Shale's perpetual fear of pigeons, everyone has a reason to laugh and be laughed at, and it gives Dragon Age a much welcomed dose of comic relief that closely mimics the style of Peter Jackson's Gimli and Legolas. There have been a lot of RPGs which memorable characters, but rarely are they given this much attention and personality.

In the end, Dragon Age to me feels like a celebration of the fantasy RPG genre, inspired by great adventures of the past cleaned up to appeal to a wider audience. No, it doesn't have the depth of Baldur's Gate or the story of Planescape: Torment, but it sill takes enough of what made games like those great and combines it with some modern sensibilities to make a title that a much wider audience can appreciate. I don't see myself playing through this title again and again like I did with Baldur's or KOTOR, but I can still enjoy it along with millions of others.

The quick rundown:

Likes:

-Great western RPG. Everything you need and expect to have in such a game is here.

-Characters and their interactions are unmatched by any RPG in recent memory. Your party members can emotionally grow and change throughout the course of the story.

-Choices abound. Most situations have multiple solutions that don't just boil down to good, evil, or neutral results.

Dislikes:

-Overall storyline is unoriginal and screams "generic fantasy world."

-Most dungeons were repetitive and dragged on about 25-33% too long.

-The protagonist is a mute. After Mass Effect proved you don't have to play a mute I feel entirely spoiled.

-Advertising DLC within the game. For shame.