Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

20 to 40 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Highly addictive"

It has been a while since I wrote my first review of a game. I usually wait until I have finished the game. However in this case I just wanted to make my opinions known.

I played through the demo about 3 days before it was released, and seen the start of the game. Now this does do a great job for a tutorial in the game, but it does represent an easier way of playing the game. You feel the power that you could have when you get to that level, and know how to deal with the threats. Darkspawn are back in the beginning, and they are just as fun to kill, as the first two games. However once the tutorial is over that is when you can customize, your character however you want. There are many thousands of options for this also. It is great fun to see how beautiful, or ugly you can make Hawke look.

Once you have completed this you then actually start with the "real story" and begin to take hold of the game. You learn about your family, what has happened in the area, and why you must flee for your life. The story begins to take hold, and allows you to take whatever approach you like to get to the end of the game. There are a lot more options for dialog this time around. You can open certain areas in dialog by completing certain quests before attempting others, or even just look to some companions for the assistance. It can become a little overwhelming, and you should familiarize yourself with the different pictures available for the dialog options.

I have heard many times over that this game is not as sand boxy as the last two games, which is true when you are in a battle, or even just going from point A to point B. I think of it a bit differently. You have to get to a certain amount of coin before you advance the game, but how you get to that amount can be done in many different ways. You can also just get 3 people in your party, and forget about any others that would want to join you. It's open to how you want to play, but does direct you in corridors, and areas in one direction. It really is a great pace to begin with. I always go for everything I can in my first play of a game, and so far there is a lot of things to continue going for.

The controls are very intuitive, and control incredibly well. Pull the left trigger you pause time, and choose from a radial wheel, what you want to do next, hit the bumpers you can do this for the whole party. Pull the left trigger, and you get the extended menu for quick powers mapped to the other buttons. I also like the fact that you can program in "macros" for the characters. I am meaning that you can start with eg: when character is less than 30% health use potion/heal spell, if none move to next instruction... and so forth. It really is a great intuitive system, and works well as far as I have played.

Bioware has really outdone themselves in creating a more mainstream, and better/easier way of playing an action RPG. It really does play more action, but faster paced, and better handling is what was lacking from the first one in my opinion. I have played the table top games Dungeons and Dragons, and in the last few intervals they have been trying to stream line that also. Since they made 3rd, and 3.5 edition they have been explaining that an action would be 6 seconds in real time. With this game it seems to have taken that to heart, and are able to express it in full form. I like faster, and flashier battle, than the old style stop, and micro manage the next moves. Everything is not Chess, and should not need to be played out as so. Sure for a major battle it may need that, but if all the battles were that way I would go back to playing Final Fantasy Tactics.

I say thank you Bioware for bring this out, and showing that action RPG's can be great, and play great.