Played some more on it. It really is cool. Apparently there are 6 original background stories just dependent upon what race and class you choose at the start. The one I picked played through like an interactive high budget Hollywood film. Character now has a War Dog that I got to name.
There are 3 main classes but the manual explains that these can be further subtree specialized into 4 more from those each for a total of 12. There is crafting that your character can spend talent points on to learn such as Herbalism, Poison Making and use, and Trap making and use.
One of my main concerns before getting the game was the combat. I usually don't care for console games due to the real-time combat. I liked the old RPGs where it was all tactical turn-based. This game is kind of a hybrid of both. You can pause the game at any time and issue specific orders for anyone in your party. You can even set "if-then-what" tactics for the AI to handle for you when you aren't controlling a particular party member. Like, for example: If you are currently manually controlling the main character then you could have pre-set AI tactics for your healer something like this: "If a party member is <50% health then cast *heal spell*, etc. This way you don't have to necessarily micromanage the other characters all the time (though you can pause and do so as you like anyway). I like that. I also like that only the special activated abilities are "twitchy" in combat. i.e. Your caracter will continue a base attack on the target of your choice without hitting any buttons once set into motion. The only thing you have to worry about is when you want to use refreshable special combat talents (in my case, with a warrior, "shield bash" which can stun...).
Game looks nice, though I understand it looks really great on PC if you have the processor and vid card to run it (I don't which is why I got the xbox version). Looks like it is expandable with downloadable content as well. The retail box game comes with two free codes to get add on items and, I think, some other adventure areas.
Storyline is really great though so far. They have a few big name actors doing voice work in it as well.
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"Dragon Age: Origins" was released today.
