Dragon Age: Origins

[Thenryb]

Into my third playthrough and I have to say that the game's strength is also its weakness.

The campaign is a lot of fun and I really enjoyed my first playthrough. On the second, I found myself hitting fast-forward more often than not through the dialogue.

Yes
Yep
Mmhm
No, you're not a killer
I agree
Yep
No, go no.
Okay.

Now halfway through my third playthrough (this time as a Dwarven warrior)... I'm fading. This focus on the story wears thin with multiple plays. More often than not I find myself trying ot hurry up through the story so I can get back to the combat and see how the build plays against x creature or y boss. It was definitely worth the money and I could see revisitting it later down the road after I'm done with this third play, but it does not have the replay value I had anticipated. D2, it ain't.

I hear you on the tediousness of the dialogue, particularly during a replay. Frankly, I do not know why they felt it necessary to have those dialogues with characters like merchants (other than those who are an integral part of the story). I miss Griswold's simple "Whut can I do for ya?" The other thing about the game I have trouble getting used to are the cutscenes which precede major fights and leave you in a position where it is difficult to get your party members in the right position. They are usually bunched together and vulnerable to some big AOE spell. I know there are options for controlling the entire party and I have tried enabling that, and retreating somewhere to position them tactically but it generally does not work. I also wish there was a method for taking a party member and moving him to a certain position and making him or her stay there while you activate and move other party members. There may be such techniques but I am unused to these "pause and play" type games. For the most part I have enjoyed the game.