After over a week of nightly playing, I have finished the game. Though, saying that is a bit of a cop-out, since it would take many, many play-throughs in order to fully experience every possible scenario the game could offer. 
The story of the game is pretty textbook when it comes to fantasy: The world is under attack by evil forces called The Darkspawn. You are a Grey Warden, a member of an organization who serve as the world’s guardians, and it’s your job to unify the armies of the land to fight this threat. And naturally, that’s no easy task.
At the head of this Darkspawn is the Archdemon, who must be defeated to end the Blight:
The first small part of the game tells the story of your origin, and this part of the game is completely different depending on which race you chose to play: Human, Elf, or Dwarf. I played through both the Human and Elf origin stories, and they were both brilliant and very well done. From there, you become a Grey Warden and the story opens up a bit. After an epic battle that goes horribly wrong, you are left as one of only two Grey Warden’s left in the land. 
The king is dead and it’s blamed on the Warden’s themselves by a power hungry General. It’s a lot of politics that adds a bit of strategical and battle-less flavor to the game. From here, you can approach the next parts of the game in any order you wish, and it involves uniting the armies of Ferelden. You must gain the support of the Elves, the Dwarves, and the Magi. 
You will see Tolkien’s influence everywhere you go. The battle near the beginning of the game makes you think Helm’s Deep. The journey to the Dwarven city of Orzammar echoes Moria entirely. But it all has it’s own unique flavor and look about it. And let’s face it, there’s no reason to change perfection when it comes to the lore Tolkien created for us. The most memorable “Tolkien” moment I had in the game was in the underground Dwarven city. My party was fighting on a narrow stone bridge across a gaping chasm. I was talking to myself as that scene played out, saying “You shall not pass!” repeatedly. Heh.
After you gain the support of all the armies, it’s time to depose the traitor who got the king killed and blamed it on you. You can handle this anyway you choose — this game provides some of the most diversive and interesting choices of any RPG I’ve played. My choice was to kill him. He deserved it. The jerk.
It’s then time to fight the Blight itself, and it’s here where the battles become truly epic in nature, and very challenging compared to everything that you’ve faced up to this point. I never had so much trouble in the final quarter of the game as I had throughout the rest of it. I had to think. I had to try different things. And I had to save and reload a LOT. Crowd control saved me so many time, and the ability to “petrify” a target and than shatter it into a million pieces afterwards never, ever got old. 
I read somewhere that never before had a mage been created so CORRECTLY, and I know exactly what they mean. My mage was such a powerful badass, but oh so frail. It worked though. I was able to stand afar while my tank ran into battle, throwing devastating spells at my enemies and potent heals at my allies. My favorite spell of all time was the fireball, which blew enemies off their feet and burned them alive as they lay stunned on the ground.
Also, the animation of the Inferno was nothing less than breathtaking, as you can see pictured above. Yes, I created that thing. And there are bad guys burning up inside of it. 
The final battle against the Archdemon was both epic and challenging, though surprisingly it wasn’t the most challenging battle of the game. At the end of this battle, I had to make one of the choices that I spent the longest amount of time sitting at my computer thinking about. In the end, I decided to sacrifice myself and deal the final blow to the Archdemon myself. The epilogue at the end of the game, praising my heroics, was very cool, albeit sad.
After finishing the game, I had already decided that this RPG is better than Oblivion, and that is saying so much. There can probably be no greater compliment. The combat system is fantastic — I cannot say enough about it. The ability to switch between RTS and live-action is the greatest part about it, because sometimes I want to execute a battle in real-time, but sometimes I do need to pause and examine the situation before I decide on my course of action. The ability to do either is perfect.
If there weren’t so many other games demanding my attention right now, I would certainly play through it again, just to see the consequences of making different choices throughout my journey — the main one being, of course, what would happen if I decided I didn’t want to die.
I definitely see this game as one I will revisit in due time, and games such as these are horribly few and far between these days.
Now playing: Breaking Benjamin - Away
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