So after approximately three months, I finally finished playing Dragon Age for the Xbox 360 and let me tell you, this was a phenomenal game! I was completely engrossed the entire time and really fell in love with the characters. In this role-playing game, you can choose between a human, elf, or dwarven character. After that, you can choose a warrior, mage, or rogue. This game is completely immersive with a huge world to explore.
There story was interesting and there were numerous side quests to fulfill in addition to the main quest. It's hard to describe the story since it changes depending on the character you create, but the basic gist is that you are the newest member of the Gray Wardens, a military organization whose sole purpose is to fight the darkspawn and the archdemon leader, which is a corrupted dragon. Unfortunately, an erstwhile ally named Logain has betrayed the king of the land during a battle with the darkspawn and blamed his death on the Gray Wardens. To make matters worse, the Gray Warden contingent in this land has all been wiped out with the exception of a rookie Gray Warden named Alistair. You and Alistair are forced to build an army to fight the archdemon and restore the honor of the Gray Wardens. The main quest takes your character all over the continent, trying to get the dwarves, elves, human warriors, and mages to join your side.
You can also recruit other characters to join your party. You can travel with up to three others and it's nice to have a mix of mage, warriors, and rogues. The best part of this character interaction is that you continually have to ensure the other members of your party are happy. If you go against their ideals or opinions too much, they may leave your party or even attack you. You can get back into their good graces by completing missions for them or giving them meaningful gifts. You can even romance other party members. When playing as a male, you can get into relationships with Morrigan, the mysterious and kind of evil (but no less hot) rebel magician or Leliana, the former-bard, now-rogue redhead. If someone of the same sex interests you, Zevran, the assassin-elf will gladly flirt back. When playing as a female, Alistair and Zevran are your love interests; however, Leliana will also jump at a chance for the touch of a woman.
One of my favorite parts of the game were the onversations between the characters. As the other members of your party have different backgrounds and beliefs, they will randomly snipe and tease each other. Most of the back-and-forth conversations are hilarious. I found it amazing that the voice actors had to read these extra lines with no other purpose than to make the characters seem more like real people. These added lines have no bearing whatsoever on the game play, but they just add a little something that adds to the overall experience.
Like all Bioware titles, the difficulty level can be adjusted, even in mid-game, to ensure that if the player likes battle challenges, he or she can focus on fighting and strategy and if the player is more focused on the storyline and cares less about the intricacy of each spell and what weapon metal is the best, he or she can make the battles a minor part of the gameplay.
The weakest part of the game was the graphics. Although I thought they were fine, they weren't mind blowing and some reviews actually thought they detracted from the gameplay. This was not my experience though, but just know that the graphics aren't top notch.
All in all, this was one of my favorite games and it took me quite some time to finish. And replayability is huge since the backstory is different depending on the race and the job of your character. Make sure this game is part of your XBox library. Now onto Mass Effect 2....
