I’ve been back and forth on this entry. Whether it should be this high on the list. Whether it should even be on this list. And yet I feel if this wasn’t on the list, I’d regret it. Because the fact is, I really enjoyed my time with the Dragon Age games.
Dragon Age: Origins was my first exposure to the modern multi-character Mass Effect-style epic RPG for which Bioware was famous. I’d played Baldur’s Gate and Neverwinter Nights, but this was something special. Half a dozen different origins — entirely different opening chapters to the game depending upon the race and heritage you chose at the beginning. Elves were reviled. Mages were hated and feared. The classic RPG tropes were turned on their heads.
I played through the game with every origin.
As with Dungeon Siege, I liked best the feeling of just being one member of the party. It was possible to micromanage every character, but I just was content to focus on one at a time (and not always mine) and let the nature of the party develop organically with the gear we’d get, the quests we were doing, and whose story we were on.
I couldn’t have anticipated Dungeon Age II more. DA2 was a very different game, though. Instead of a party you could mold as you liked, each character had their own job and their own gear that could not be shared. A lot of the value to replaying was lost, and I never did feel a need to replay it. The story, however, was even better than in the first game, and there were no annoying interludes as with the infamous “Fade” chapter. Playing DA2 was like playing a novel.
Dragon Age: Inquisition overturned the apple cart once again. Instead of a linear narrative as in the first two games, DA:I was a “map” type game. Your main camp had a literal map in it, and you’d select a portion to go to, and then you’d move between quest markers, opening up new areas and completing quests. Although there was a story that happened in bits and pieces when an area was cleared, the story itself never felt very compelling. I had issues running the game (it didn’t like my video card) and never did get around to finishing it.
One game I replayed so many times. A second game I played once. A third I never finished. And a fourth (Dragon Age Legends) into which I sunk altogether too much time until EA shut it down. This series is above Dungeon Siege and Portal?
I had a hard time thinking of game series that I really enjoyed, and I have to admit that there is a wide chasm between this series and the series that is #2 on my list. Truth is, though, that if a Dragon Age 4 were announced, I’d be first in line. Bioware shuffled things up each game, and I can’t wait to see what they’d do with the franchise next.
