As of the release of The Veilguard, the Dragon Age series has four (and a half, we’ll explain in a minute) games under its belt, and each of them is worth checking out for different reasons.
How do they compare to each other, however? No matter how the ranking might looks, there is a nearly 100% guarantee that each arrangement is going to have many people who would swear by its accuracy.
So to make things a little bit more fun, we’ll present each game according to several aspects:
- Tactics – how deep and wide is the combat?
- Companions – how memorable and likeable are the members of your crew?
- Story – how memorable and satisfying is the story?
- Epicness – does the game do a good job selling the scale of the plot-driving threat?
- Replayability – specifically: how many different playthroughs can you get out of it?
We’ll call it the “CREST” grade, just for fun.
As Dragon Age: The Veilguard hasn’t yet had the time for the discussions to calm down, so it’s not in the running, but we’ll talk about it a little bit anyway.
So, the setup’s behind us, let’s hop in. The games are presented in a chronological order, to show how the series evolved over the years.
Dragon Age: Origins
| Release date: | 2010-09-29 |
| Genre: | RPG |
| Developer: | BioWare |
Dragon Age: Origins was, as the title might suggest, the very first game in the series.
A tribute, of sorts, to Bioware’s older cRPGs such as Baldur’s Gate or Neverwinter Nights. It feels a little bit as if you mixed Game of Thrones with Lord of the Rings, which , while not precise, should give you a decent sense of the kind of vibe DAO goes for.
- Companions – DAO has some absolute bangers, like Shale, Sten or Alistair, not to mention the series staples Leliana and Morrigan, who keep coming back as NPCs. Others, like Wynne or Oghren might be a bit forgettable, but by no means bad.
- Replayability – there is a ton of material for many very different playthroughs: six unique Origin stories, many choices regarding factions, tons of smaller narrative decisions. It’s very easy to get a very different world state each time.
- Epicness – it’s a game about gathering assets to push back against a tide of monstrous enemies. The maps aren’t huge, but DAO does manage to sell the impression that you’re travelling a large world, and there’s no shortage of impressive events reminding you it’s an epic, fantasy war.
- Story – unfortunately, the best story in DAO is one we aren’t really interacting with a lot. The political machinations and betrayals are great, but what we’re mostly saddled with is a pretty generic plot about a horde of conveniently monstrous and unyielding monsters. The lore is great, though.
- Tactics – no other game in the series can match Origins’ tactical depth. The extent to which you could program the behavior of characters was incredible, and the interactions, action costs, and usually unfair combat encounters made the game a tactical delight.
Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening
| Release date: | 2010-03-17 |
| Genre: | Adventure |
| Developer: | BioWare Edmonton |
It’s the half! Awakening was an expansion to Origins, but not only did it take place on a different map, with different companions, it even might have had a different protagonist, although you might have imported the one you played in base DAO… if they were still kicking by the end.
- Companions – not much to write home about. Anders surely made an impression on the series, and Oghren came back, but in general the companions of Awakening were… just okay.
- Replayability – not many reasons to replay, but that’s alright, it’s just an expansion that sets some other things up for the future.
- Epicness – getting to manage an keep in the middle of nowhere, being in charge or protecting a region, AND tangling with a massive lore-drop? That’s pretty damn cool.
- Story – it’s a very story-driven expansion, and it’s pretty good. A bit of mystery, some personal conflicts, and a lore bomb that doesn’t shock now, but was a big deal right after DAO
- Tactics – pretty much the same as Origins
Dragon Age II
| Release date: | 2011-03-08 |
| Genre: | Adventure |
| Developer: | BioWare Edmonton |
DA2 had big ambitions, but not enough development time to make them shine. Despite that, it did some things really well.
The city of Kirkwall was interesting, and while the new art direction needed polish, it matched the game’s tone. DA2 started with a rough reception, but it’s getting better.
- Companions – companions in DA2 felt a lot more like people with their own lives and ambitions, which was a great evolution. Also: Varric is from DA2, so that counts for something! A great cast in general, although also “acquired taste” in some cases.
- Replayability – not quite as high as DAO’s, but still good. There are many choices to make, many of them playthrough-defining. Even just the class choice decides which of your siblings survives the prologue.
- Epicness – not really a major draw of the game. Things are quite contained, power levels mostly kept in check, but the next section explains why that’s fine, actually.
- Story –DA2 story might be the best among the first trilogy. Limiting the scope to the history of a single family (and friends), living for several years in a single city gave the plot focus, precision, and tension. The biggest issue is the endless recycling of locations, but that’s not a writing problem.
- Tactics – not particularly engaging. Encounters were mostly defending against waves on enemies, and combat was closer to action-based than tactical, despite still involving four player characters at a time.
Dragon Age: Inquisition
| Release date: | 2014-11-18 |
| Genre: | Adventure |
| Developer: | BioWare |
Dragon Age: Inquisition suffered due to rather tedious beginning and a lot of unengaging filler activities present in other locations.
But on the other hand, it looked great, combat was fun (if you had a controller), crafting system is rewarding and interesting, and… let’s get into the categories.
- Companions – very strong roster of vibrant characters, all with something interesting going on, if you choose to give them a chance. There’s also a strong supporting cast of advisors who are just as fleshed out as the full companions.
- Replayability – plenty of choices to make, some with major, game-changing consequences. Some choices will matter mostly to people invested in the characters and the world, because while they are big swings, they won’t alter the course of the campaign a lot.
- Epicness – top tier. You’re often making choices as a leader of a powerful organization via the war table operations, and there are many Big, Bombastic Sequences, including some that involve the forces you’ve spent time assembling. It feels grand. DAI also has awesome dragons.
- Story – it has it all: political maneuvering, saving the world, character-driven drama, big narrative Moments, and lore-shaking revelations. It’s not something you haven’t seen a thousand times before in the genre, but it’s done quite well and feels like a fun TTRPG campaign.
- Tactics – it’s… fine. It’s more tactically oriented than Dragon Age 2, but doesn’t come close to Origins. Thankfully, there are also excellent optional boss fights against various dragons, which give the intricacies of the prime-detonate system and the class features some time to shine
The road to The Veilguard
If want to be more or less up to speed for The Veilguard’s release, your best bet would probably be Dragon Age: Inquisition.
The Veilguard’s plot is closely related to Inquisition, that it originally carried the subtitle “Dreadwolf” instead. It picks up the story where DAI left off (although with a new player character), and there are several appearances from people we’ve last seen (or even met for the first time) in Inquisition. On the other hand, The Veilguard is also very different from any other DA game, because it’s going to be closer to Mass Effect 2 and 3’s gameplay in a few ways.
The gist is that 1) combat is now fully action-focused; 2) you only run around with two companions, and can only give them indirect order via tactical pause; and 3) it’s taking the mission-driven approach with a hub HQ hub. You can find more details in our list of 10 things to know about The Veilguard.