Dragon Age's strength doesn't lie in the gameplay, area design, story or anything that's related to general gameplay.
Dragon Age: Origins would be an average to crappy RPG in my eyes, if not for the incredible work they put into the characters, voice acting, character progression (I mean what they learn as persons, not the levelling process) and their relationships with each other.
Just listening to Alistair and Morrigan barking at each other, entertained me for hours.
I would've probably cried or at the very least been very sad if any of the characters died during the story.
Can't say that about any game and in that regard, DAO is exceptional and has an area where it excels over DOS.
Which is why some refer to it as a relationship simulator and an extremely weak RPG in terms of mechanics and development. Nothing wrong with people liking the games, to each their own, but the problem is with people calling it a quality RPG and then expecting everything else to mimic it.
