Genre: RPG
Developer: Bioware
Publisher: Electronic Arts

Coming from such a premier development studio, and a studio that is now bankrolled by the world's richest publisher to boot, Dragon Age's artistic qualities and the technological prowess of its engine both predictably range anywhere from "good" to "great". The retro touches, including the nifty pixelization field of depth effect used in all of the dialog sequences, and the fact that all of the indoor areas were made to look like a high-tech Baldur's Gate 2 when viewed via the pseudo-isometric perspective, are appreciable.

Unlike with his Fallout 3 work, Inon Zur actually manages to partly break outside of his cookie-cutter Hollywood mold and deliver some compelling, ambient, and original work. It's still lightly sprinkled with the all-too-familiar, obnoxious chanting/moaning female vocal work, but some of the songs, such as the tavern theme, are very atmospheric. The voice acting is top-drawer from top-to-bottom, with Steve Valentine and Kate Mulgrew, among several others, all delivering stellar performances.

Dragon Age takes the combat engine from KotoR, the fantasy setting from Baldur's Gate, and the writing and production qualities from Mass Effect, and actually manages to feel completely fresh. Dragon Age's best gameplay attribute is that it can successfully be played in a variety of manners-- tentatively and strategically, with frequent spacebar-triggered pauses, and via the brilliant real-time strategy-esque overhead perspective, or fluidly and completely in real-time, using an over-the-shoulder camera. A quick flick of the mousewheel transitions between the two perspectives, and the ingenious tactics menu and MMO-style skill bar work together perfectly.

The level design quality is a little uneven-- most noticeably in the case of the almost hilariously thrown together final dungeon-- and the game suffers from some pacing problems too; the sudden inundation of side-quests in Denerim, and the oppresively tiresome, much-too-long mid-game "Fade" sequence are a couple of examples. On the other hand, the game feels more "meaty" somehow than Bioware's other recent titles, and it is the depth of the mechanics, combined with the game's rewarding difficulty and some of the best story writing and character design ever woven into a video game, that more than make up for the work's shortcomings.