I have never played any of the Dragon Age games, but I just gained access to the GamePass tier that has EA games, so I can play any of them.
I absolutely love all of Bioware’s “classic” works (KOTOR, Mass Effect) where conversation choices affect the plot of the game. Would you guys recommend just playing the Dragon Age games in order of release, or what is the general consensus?
Origins is definitely the best and the closest to that classic Bioware feel you like.
DA2 was polarizing but I enjoyed it. Very different from the first mechanically. Worth playing tho, IMHO.
DA:I was… not fun for me. I feel like they tried to modernize the formula and added all the worst parts of modern (at the time) games, namely HUGE time sinks for no reason because it’s not a fucking MMORPG that makes money by the hour. /deep breath Sorry, I am still a little bitter at how that game turned out. Anyways, probably worth checking out, maybe you will feel differently. But it wasn’t for me.
DA2 was polarizing but I enjoyed it.
The writing was pretty good. Just gets boring playing literally the same ten maps over, and over, and over, and over again.
DA2 takes a different take for me when I realized that you’re playing through Varric’s retelling of the story. It kinda explains why people are falling out of the sky to join the battle and other inconsistencies.
This gets often overlooked, glad it got brought up. The entire game is an exercise in unreliable narration. Gives you a very different lens to experience the game through.
Dragon age 2 was insanely fun to me, i definitely played it more than origins. (Im aware I’m not in the majority with that) I thought the combat was so fun and i loved doing different play throughs with different builds in that game
2 definitely shows the issue of EA wanting to push the game out in 1.5 years. Many cut corners and a lack of assets with the repetitive maps.
I think it’s the weakest entry in the Dragon Age series, and a lot of it’s negative reception was because it failed to live up to expectations of DAO.If Dragon Age 2 wasn’t a Dragon Age game, it wouldn’t have gotten the poor reviews it got. As a standalone game it’s actually not bad.
I always recommend playing it, as it directly leads into the story of Inquisition and it has some great characters in it.
I love Dragon Age: Origins. One of the best “modern” RPGs for sure. Great replayability. Great characters. Great “rpgness”.
I also love Dragon Age 2. It’s not a great game… but I actually like the story more. I like how more “focused” it feels narrative-wise. The characters are also great. The “rpgness” is less good… and development issues makes for a lot of reused assets.
I kinda like Dragon Age: Inquisition. I’ve been replaying it recently. The story is decent. The characters are also good. Maybe even better tbh. I like the main plot points and the ideas etc. But the game mechanics kinda suck… I hate the pointless missions that take time like mobile games. The way the story progresses, with meta-points blocking things also sucks. But it’s ok…
All in all, I would recommend playing them all. But kinda like watching all the Godfather movies. One is great, another is pretty good, and one kinda sucks but it’s ok. But if you just watch the one that’s great, you kinda miss the whole thing.
Definitely play them in order of release. They’re all very different games but an amazing series overall and definitely worth playing
DAO+Awakening is just a chef kiss, nothing is perfect in this world but as far as games are concerned DAO is an amazing experience.
DA2, huh, I did finish it like twice I’d say and I don’t remember much. Can’t say much but I guess this fact is something in itself.
DAI got a joke for a story, from the very first minutes it’s just laughable. I did enjoy the crafting and fighting in DAI but even those have a fair amount of flaws (limited number of abilities cause of console support and so on)
Been a fan since the start, so here’s my two cents:
Dragon Age Origins is amazing. Buy each of the expansions. Save files transfer from expansion to expansion, and there are also a few DLCs for the base game. Usually everything is sold in one package - either the Ultimate Edition on Steam (which can also be modded), or GoG. GamePass only has the basegame.
Once you’ve completed the final DAO expansion (Witch Hunt), DA2 is worth playing at least once for its story. It has two expansions (Mark of the Assassin and Legacy) both of which are improvements on the base game. Don’t bother with any other DLC unless you get it all in a package deal. Save file transfers directly into DA2 from DAO.
Once you’ve completed DA2, DAI is also worth playing (I personally liked it more than 2, but YMMV). Mainline it if you start getting bored, as the main quest is worth the playthrough. It had three expansions, the first two played during the main campaign (both endgame) and one postgame expansion. All are worth playing, but The Descent and Trespasser are the most important for the overall world. DAI saves are a bit weird, as they don’t come from DA2. Instead, you fill in your choices in the Dragon Age Keep (should be first result on Google) and export them to DAI. I suggest jotting down major choices as you go.
Outside of the three games, there’s also a series of novels and a Netflix series, as well as a series of comics. The first five and following three comics are available in collections, generally pretty cheaply. Novels are printed to order. If you enjoy the stories in the games, I strongly recommend Asunder by David Gaider and The Masked Empire by Patrick Weekes. Tevinter Nights was great, but it may lose relevance when the new game comes out in the coming couple of years, as it was written as a kind of preview for what’s coming up. The Netflix series was good, but likely of little relevance to the greater narrative.
Honestly, all three games are worth playing in order. There’s nothing atrocious about any of them (DAI won game of the year in 2014), although none have aged super well. In the case of DA2, it may be worth mainlining if the environments bother you (game was made in 18 months, so most maps were recycled several times). If you do mod DAO, just do texture mods for now; there’s some great stuff out there, but only really worthwhile for later playthroughs.
If you find yourself really loving DAO, Baldur’s Gate 3 is a spiritual successor to it and a direct sequel to the games that were DAO’s original inspiration. Do check that out when it comes out at the end of the week if DAO is your jam.
Feel free to DM me if you have any other questions!
Combat is completely different in BG3. I don’t know why people keep comparing it to real time with pause games, they’re practically different genres.
True, although combat is only one aspect of BG3, I’m mostly referring to storytelling and depth of decision making. Tbh I typically avoid combat in EA if I can’t one-shot everything (playing a very squishy Elder One Warlock for whom constitution is his dump stat). There are similarities though (DAO is largely turn-based RTP combat, whereas BG3 is totally turn-based. If you pause enough, DAO slows down enough to become pure turn-based).
Awesome information, thank you so much!
Origins and the Awakening expansion. The rest are just kind of bad to play, imo. Not to say you wont enjoy the experience, I just think they’re unfun.
Thanks, I didn’t realize there was an expansion. I’m not sure if GamePass includes it so I’ll look into it.
The DLC in all the games are fairly important depending on the DLC/expansion, and there can be a lot of it. DA2 and DAI both integrate well into the story while DAO was kind of built around the idea of side-story mini-adventures so there’s a lot more of them.
DAO Primary story DLC: Warden’s Keep, Stone Prisoner, Return to Ostagar add side quests to the main game and are solid to play.
DAO Standalone campaigns: Leliana’s Song is a prequel focusing on the Leliana party member (you’ll meet her pretty early in DAO although she is missable), Darkspawn Chronicles is an alternate history and not needed although fun, Golems of Amgarrak is a short post-story adventure that’s not that important, Witch Hunt is a post-game story around Morrigan that’s actually pretty important.
Awakening is a full-length expansion and absolutely worth playing, some of the characters you meet here tie into DA2.
DA2: All DLC integrates with the main story and can be played at any time. Legacy is a very important DLC that directly ties into Dragon Age Inquisition.
DAI: All 3 story DLC are fantastic, Jaws of Hakkon, The Descent and Trespasser.
Jaws and Descent are played during the main story as side quests, and Descent has some major lore implications for the world and raises some serious questions about the past and the potential future. Trespasser is a post-game story that directly leads into DA4: Dreadwolf when it comes out.Also not sure if Gamepass supports this, but you can import your saves forward. For Dragon Age Inquisition you will need to use Dragon Age Keep to recreate your choices to import them into your world state.
Dragon Age Origins, this is the way.
Play them in order. And if you love the lore, there are also books.
If you are here for branching stories with a lot of player choice you basically have to start with Origins. The save transfers up to the third game and it has a lot of callbacks that could have played out differently if you picked different things in the first two games. It’s basically the only redeeming quality of DA:Inquisition for me.
I know it’s an unpopular opinion, but I really love Dragon Age: Inquisition. It has huge flaws, yes. Chiefly having way too much generic filler sidequesting.
Do note that you’ll need the DLC to get the most important part of the story. (Thanks EA.)
To be fair, I am not the model series fan. I gave up on Origins in the 12 hours of identical dungeon corridors underneath the dwarf city. Never played DA2. Love KotOR, Jade Empire (still holds up surprisingly well!), and Mass Effect, though.
the 12 hours of identical dungeon corridors underneath the dwarf city
ugh, this just gave me real, visceral dread, and I haven’t played that stage in at least 5 years!
it was so, so HARD. Also I’m a filthy casual and everything is hard for me, but jfc that area kicked my whole ass repeatedly.
The first and it’s addons. Full stop.
I’d recommend playing in release order if you’re someone who tends to enjoy delving into lore. (And man, is there a LOT of lore.) I did them in reverse order originally, and although I enjoyed DAI a lot, I didn’t quite get why the stakes were so high for the protag. I felt way more connected to the storyline when I returned to Inquisition after having Origins and DA2 under my belt.
My other reason for recommending chronological order is that Origins is one of the best games I’ve ever played. I still fire up my Xbox 360 to give it a play now and again.
Origins struck a good balance between player autonomy and the required storyline. You can pick your character’s race, gender, and class at the start of the game and get a unique back story that informs how you can approach later conflicts and circumstances. Then you find out the central conflict and are presented with the different factions you need to draw together. From there, it’s up to you to decide who you’ll support and how you’ll make it happen. You can be a true asshole to all your companions, or a Lothario, or BFFs. And the combat system is pretty good overall, despite being dated and a touch clunky. The party mechanics are fun when you get used to them.
DA2 is a perfectly serviceable game, but not one I personally enjoy replaying. Humans are the least interesting race in Thedas to me, and I’m sure that contributes.
DAI is definitely an Open World Game and therefore plagued by all the struggles these games tend to have, but I still found it really fun. Jaws of Hakkon is a great DLC for the world building element. Trespasser is basically the real ending of the game, so hopefully you’ll have access to that DLC as well!
I hope you have a great experience playing these games for the first time! DA is my favourite series ever, and I love seeing folks give it a go. :)
Origins and Inquisition. One was a masterpiece and the other was also great.
But I would suggest that you start wir Dragon Age inquisition since Origins simply feels like the old game that it is.
I agree on point one.
Disagree on point two.
DAO does have some age, but the writing is much, much better than in DAI. (Also, and I can’t emphasize this enough, play DA:O’s expansion pack. IT IS SUPERB.) Further, most of the side-quests in DAI feel like empty, MMO junk, whereas every side quest has some meaning in DAO.
“DAO does have some age” sure thing - it’s in the name
What you did there, I see it.
I thought DA:I was a perfectly cromulent game.
Honestly, it depends on how aware you are of fantasy tropes. I found the DA games to be utterly boring and predictible point for point, and I’d be sitting there going “Oh, this is where X is going to happen…” and sure enough…
If you haven’t played a lot of fantasy games or read a lot of fantasy fiction, they’re probably fine… I found them annoying.
Spoilers, probably:
