Dragon Age - Review @ RPG Codex

Vince D. Weller has penned a review of Dragon Age for RPG Codex. While noting a number of flaws, the overall tone is positive - even going as far as to say the roleplaying opportunities are better than any RPG since Arcanum. Here's an early snip:

However, the world within these constraints of generic fantasy is very well designed and polished, and if you let it, will surprise you with its depth and the quality of its "unique takes and variants on some old familiar standards". To be honest, I hate all that elves and dwarves crap with passion, but I've genuinely enjoyed visiting different hubs and learning about different cultures, races, and customs, which led me to the conclusion that what I hate isn't the races but the cardboard cutout implementations - "these are dwarves, they live underground and like to fight; awesome or what?" Bioware definitely did a superb job there and raised the bar quite a lot.

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More information.

I cant believe there's no comments on this one, it's like tearing a hole in reality to see this up! Just kidding, VD and BroNo are cool cats = ]

Seriously tho, it's quite a positive and fair review. I think does touch on some of the strengths of the game that have kept me playing, the depths of the questlines, and lore of the usual fantasy archetypes added to and tweaked to make interesting.

The review itself could have been cut in half, he does go very long-winded on running thru some quests to justify his shattering of the space/time continuum in the land of the '97 RPG grognards, and it is very spoiler heavy if you havnt played the game so beware!

There are some new comments :
http://www.rpgcodex.net/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=40350

I didn't think the quest writing was that good, it seemed like the optimal choice was always pretty easy to see. I've played all the Bioware RPGs, I know the hold hands and get along approach is going to be the best choice. Bioware C&C doesn't hold a candle to a more morally realistic setting like The Witcher.

No mention of the lazy item design? I was hoping the codex would tear into that since no other site has had the page room to mention it around their gushing. I guess they're getting soft on me.

LuckyCarbon said:

I didn't think the quest writing was that good, it seemed like the optimal choice was always pretty easy to see. I've played all the Bioware RPGs, I know the hold hands and get along approach is going to be the best choice. Bioware C&C doesn't hold a candle to a more morally realistic setting like The Witcher.

No mention of the lazy item design? I was hoping the codex would tear into that since no other site has had the page room to mention it around their gushing. I guess they're getting soft on me.

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Class diversity = issue no. 1

The item design was actually pretty good, I think - but there weren't enough of them and they messed up on chest loot.

I can't say I was surprised by that review since VD had already made his view of the game clear enough in several cases.
I would however strongly recommend to anyone who hasn't played the game NOT to read that review (or skip the most part of it) since he made the odd decision of completely spoiling the game's arguably best questline. Just for that I can't see that as a review as much as an 'approval' of a game I've already played by a representative of the Codex - which I couldn't care less about.