There was reason I worded it as BioWare SAYING the game is a dark heroic fantasy, but I should have elaborated because I would have loved some actual darkness, as I agree that it really isn’t. I got much more of an impression of darkness in the trailers than what the reality is for the game, assuming at the time that Leliana for example would be more bloodthirsty crazy instead of so pious. I would have loved the game to take on some of those hopeless elements that I am filled with during a Silent Hill game (though that is a very different ‘fantasy’).

OMG, the expressionless of the player character drove me crazy the entire time. When you are creating your character and playing with the voices, it shows emotion while they talk, and I had expected that throughout, but no. Even during the sex seen it is all so morose. Expressions could have been better, or existed at all.

I didn’t even register how awesome the religion in the game is in that regards, being so much more like out own world instead of say how in DnD you can potentially MEET deities. That definitely is unique.

Considering how upset I was, and still am now that I am finally playing it, with the sex scene in Mass Effect only giving a female option like that, I feel like BioWare is gradually working their way towards having all options possible, so I forgave them this time in Dragon Age. I also appreciate the bisexual presence more because I feel like it is the least portrayed in mainstream media. In the future I would like more character options, and it would be wonderful for them to include straight up gay men and lesbians. Though to tell you the truth what I would really like is to be able to pursue any of the characters regardless of gender, successful depending on how you play.

Thank you for another marvelous response, Sean.

I adored this game, but I see so much room for improvement that just makes me excited for the future.

Still, Dragon Age gives me hope for even better games in the future.

While it’s the best game I’ve played in a while, I have to agree with Yahtzee: it isn’t dark fantasy. Oh, there’s some elements of dark fantasy, but for every good thing towards that they do, they sprinkle it with some mitigating factor which made it.. safe. And light and Tolkinesqe and cliche. And one of my few beefs with Bioware is that they put too much stock in Big and Flashy. You don’t make a game into a dark fantasy by including kinky sex, or by putting blood spatters that don’t come off until the next scene loads, nor by pakaging the game with the worst Marilyn Manson song ever (seriously, any song by Dimmu Borgir or something would have been better suited) You make a game a dark fantasy by including *fear.* Not just fear that the world will be destroyed if you fail; every epic fantasy under the sun has that. And not just fear of death or corruption; Tolkien had that too. No, personal fear, I’m talking about, fear that you are alone in this, no one is going to save you, and that everything you do is wrong and is just ggoing to bring you more pain and horror until you die, turn evil, or go mad. Now you have that feeling in some places in the game; the sequence in the game involving the dwarves is excellent, and if the game had more stuff like that, it’d be awesome. But in the other places, it seemed that there was an obvious thing to do, an obvious way it can work out for the benifit of all concerned. (Yeah, I know, some of the ending montages told you this or not, but that’s at the ending; playing through, it shouldn’t have been as obvious) There were some things you could do to make members of your party turn against you, but that can be avoided by getting to know your party members, who then are completely trustworthy. (Not to mention there weren’t enough obviously evil/sociopathic party members, and if I were writing a dark fantasy I’d provide some of those that the main character *needed* to trust to get by). And there’s this bizzare political correctness that seems to permeate everywhere that seems deliberatly at odds with all the edgy things added. And why wasn’t there a homosexual man in the party? I mean, if your going to but bisexuals in things, you might as well put in straight up gays. And you can have the best dialogue in the world, say the most badass and/or evil things, and it’;s still going to look funny coming out of that dazed, placid expression your character is saddled with. I thought after Jade empire (a game where the main character has very clear expressions for each emotional response) and Mass Effect (a game where the character not only has expressions but a voice)I thought bioware understood that.

Whew! but enough of why I didn’t like the game, I said it was the best game in a while and I meant it. Things I liked about this game:

1. Consequences- After the well deserved sucess of games like Fallout and the Witcher, Bioware has finally got rid of it’s light side/dark side system, implementing a consequence system instead, wherin the character affects the story by what he does, sometimes significantly. This allows characters to be who they want to be and not suffer in power, and any consequences the player suffers is likewise on the characters head. Even better, sometimes these consequences cannot be seen until much later.

2. A good storyline- While the essential frame of the story does not depart from the bioware formula (beginning, something bad happens, character has to go to four places, another bad thing may happen on the way, last place, big battle scene, ending), this story really is more mature and better written than most RPGs you care to name, having less to do with people being good or people being bad, and more to do with people being people (to quote someoner great)

3. Characters- Bioware has finally stopped using the same characters over and over, and have done something original (or more original, at any rate) and it’s just phenomenal. And this is good for me, especially; I’m one of the guys who cheerfully spends an hour sitting around the campfire listening to my guys talk.

4. Difficulty- One of the things that G3 really didn’t talk about: this game is hard. Really, really hard. When you fight bad guys, you have to contend with things like territory, traps, and amount of bad guys. Not to mention most magic spells have a chance of friendly fire, and the bad guys have class levels. That’s right folks: everything you can do, they can do, and sometimes better. So combat requires using your brain, and setting the AI’s tactics to something that can be useful to you, otherwise, you’ll get stuck. You’ll die and die again.

5. Religion- This is the best religion I’ve ever seen. In fantasy stories the gods are not only real but present, and have a direct hand in everything. But here, there is nothing to indicate that God is there: he does not speak, he doesn’t do anything on earth, and every single miracle has a mundane explanation. There’s absolutely nothing preventing you from slandering the religion or professing atheism at any turn, so when your character does believe in God, there’s the ring of (gasp) FAITH behind it.

6. The doggie! When I first started playing, I wen’t with the human noble, because I thought that was the only way to get the puppy, because he’s just so cute!

And yes, alistair is adorable and sweet if you sex him up, and even if you don’t. So this game is very good.

1) Alistair
2) Alistiar
3) Customization
4) Great RPG
5) Alistiar
6) Hilarious, Touching, Exciting, and any other seniment that makes it a well-rounded and eaily loved story.

Need I go on?

I still have yet to start up my second round through but I’m excited. I may have to make Dan open up one of his Christmas presents early so we can bring the game up to DL…