Funny, that is one of the highlights for me. If the dialogue or voice acting were terrible then this would be an annoyance for me as well, but the acting is great and the story is deep.
No argument that the story in this, or any other Bioware game, is very well-told.
But it's the exact same story they have already told multiple times. Changes in setting aren't enough for me. I would rather be led along a smaller story, as long as it had something intriguing and novel to it.
Bioware are disciples of Joseph Campbell in much the same way George Lucas is. I would much rather watch a movie like Pitch Black or Moon than watch another Star Wars movie though.
There are very few games with an actual story to them that are any good. If that means it's more linear and you don't get to fly around the map like in Morrowind then please for the love of god make it linear. I say quality over quantity every time.
I loathe the sandbox open-endedness of Bethesda games. I'm merely suggesting there's a middle ground, a sweet spot between the extremes of Daggerfall and Dragon Age.
Might and Magic 6 did so many things right when it comes to an open world that's still filled with interesting and engaging things to do.
Hell, WoW is a massive sandbox too, but it's just brimming with interesting things to do. Apples and oranges, sure… but Dragon Age was in development for a long time, with a massive budget, by a huge team of the best and brightest in the business. They could very easily have filled a world with the breadth and span of WoW, or Oblivion for that matter, with the detail such games normally lack.
My favorite crpg of all time is BG2, btw. That hit the sweet spot almost perfectly, imo.
Bioware are moving closer to movie-making with every game. I'm just asking for slightly more game and slightly less movie.
If I wanted that then I'd play Oblivion or Morrowind or any of the other sandbox games out there. This is Bioware and one thing they have done well has been making a great game with a decent plot to it. Some of you may disagree, but I find the plot the best feature of this game and most of Bioware's games.
I think I agree with you more than I don't. I do like Dragon Age. But I certainly won't be replaying it in 10 or 15 years. A good, even great story so rigidly unfolded before the player is just not the direction I want to see crpgs moving toward.
If you could get Beth. to build the world, and get Bio. to flesh it out; now that would be a game to play.