Likeability
I am about fifteen hours into my second play through of Dragon Age and I am still enjoying the game tremendously. At this point, I have put almost 90 hours total into the game and it still is holding its charm. I think one of the shining qualities of the game is how likeable I feel the companion characters are. This is partly due to the writing but more so due to the tremendous quality of the voice acting.
Steve Valentine, Claudia Black, Simon Templeman, and the rest of the cast all do fantastic jobs at making us care for the characters. When it comes to video games, people may argue whether it is good writing and good voice acting that is more important for likeable and memorable companion characters. Personally, I believe the voice acting is far more important. We are playing cliché fantasy games so I can get past corny clichéd writing. Terrible voice acting, however, can instantly break the immersion for me. Luckily, I feel Dragon Age excels in both areas.
In previous Bioware games, mainly KotOR and Mass Effect, there were characters that I just could ever bring myself to care for. Even if they had good writing, the voice actors often seemed to just sound bored in the roll or like there were just phoning it in. I do not feel like that is the case with Dragon Age.
Of all the roles, I think the best performance is done by Steve Valentine in the voice of Alistair. The lead male party member is probably the hardest role to get right. Usually they will come off as both weak and emo or headstrong and arrogant. Either way, they are usually so annoying that you never want them in your party (I am looking at you, Carth!). Alistair is well written, and more importantly, so well voice acted that it honestly makes me feel bad if I make a plot decision that has me upset him.
In so many games with multiple companions, I find it incredibly easy to choose who is going to be in my party. Usually there will always be two or three characters that are just head and shoulders above all of the rest making them party mainstays. That is not the case for Dragon Age. When I am out adventuring, I constantly wish I had some people from camp in my party as well. I do not wish to replace my current party members, but I wish my entire group of adventurers could all travel together because there is not one of them I do not like.