Some of the interaction is funny, some purely instructional, but all of it is well scripted. As you come across different characters, you'll hear little snippets of dialogue that move the story forward or provide you with direction on your next task. There are good voices used in Dawn of Discovery, and not just for the static 'storybook' cut scenes. The incidental music and sound effects help to set the stage at various times during each level, when you've done something notable. Sure, you'll do a lot of zooming in and out to get the proper view at any given time, but that's just the nature of the beast. The trade-off made for light entertainment is usually depth, but Dawn of Discovery dodges that bullet and provides a rich world to explore, full of colorful characters.
The best examples of this tend to either be expansive and richly detailed (as in the Blizzard catalog) or simplistic, light fare such as Diner Dash. We can all recognize that Will Wright's masterpiece was the starting point for an entire generation of RTS games and story-driven 'building' or resource-management games. Simulation isn't exactly the thrust of Dawn of Discovery, though. The view you'll have a majority of the time is strictly bird's-eye, looking down on the landscape as in Sim City or the like.
Dawn of Discovery is a casual game at heart, but it presents as well or better than many of the games you've played on the system.
