*spoilers sprinkled in the text below, you've been warned*
Played quite a bit with my human mage, so I guess I can give second impressions.
So far I've played through the mage tower and the dwarven part of the storyline. I find the reactions of various NPCs to the origin of the PC quite well done. The mage I play is a sort of good guy mage and I ratted out Jowan to the first enchanter. With another character I had done the Redcliffe storyline up to the point where you meet Jowan and I'm already looking forward to how Jowan shall react when I find him this time.
A few thoughts about the parts I've played so far:
The
Mage origin story was quite enjoyable, albeit a bit short. The twist at the end of the Harrowing was quite easy to see and since I sold out Jowan the twist at the end there was also predictable, if enjoyable.
The
City Elf origin story was the best origin I've played so far. Some quite well written lines, likeable and hateable characters.
I personally found the
Dalish Elf origin quite short and not as good as the other two I've played so far, although it was definitely fun to play as a human-hating elf. Actually managed to have Duncan have to force me to join.
The
Ostagar part of the story I am starting to get to know the best, having played it three times. It's a rather crammed part of the story where you are supposed to get all the basic lore of the game sorted out and it feels just a little bit too crowded with info.
The
Mage Tower was a quite well built part although it felt a bit linear with the whole bloody trek upwards through the tower. Not having any major twist in this part also felt like a let down. It's just a simple butcher everything type of mission.
Orzammar and the Deep Roads however is definitely epic in size and scope. The available choices and outcomes just in this part are so many in number that I almost wanted to replay just this part right after I had done it. Definitely the higlight of the game.
Leliana's storyline and romance, while at times a wee bit predictable was fun and satisfying and definitely a good distraction from all the adventuring and cracking skulls.
As for the game itself...the controls are pretty good, I've come to play in over the shoulder mode, moving with the wasd keys and it works out quite well for me. The party I've used the most (when not forced to change by the plot) so far was Alistair (shield + weapon), Leliana (dual daggers) and Wynne (healing) alongside my weapon of mass destruction (aka mage). Offensive mages have an impressive amount of firepower...put a group of enemies in Blizzard + Inferno and very few will get out and you can be sure that they'll be badly damaged. The only small issue I've had here is the friendly AI not knowing that it would be best to stay out of continous area of effect spells...
Single opponents are very easily handled by my mage and he tears into the groups sufficiently for the others to finish them off. Wynne works very well as a healer, and rarely have I had to use an injury kit since she joined. Alistair is the perfect tank, especially with his new shiny ring (+con, health regen,...don't remember the exact stats). I've probably not developed Leliana quite well and she falls short of Alistair's damage delivery, but I keep her more for rp reasons than for party strength. She probably would have worked better as an archer, having already points in the skills.
The difficulty of battles is quite random. Some of them are almost impossible on normal, while others are very easily handled by a single character. I admit to having to drop the difficulty down to easy for some battles while in the learning phase of the game, but now I manage most everything with one or two reloads on normal.
Alltogether I'm having quite a blast with the game and am already contemplating several other playthroughs once this one is done.