Up for a dragon hunt? Here are your all your Dragon Age games!
When it comes to high fantasy in the enduring Tolkien mold, few role-playing titles have seen as much success as BioWare’s Dragon Age games.
As the spiritual successor to the equally beloved Baldur’s Gate series, the first Dragon Age game, released in 2009, had the hopes and dreams of fans and developer alike riding on it. Thankfully, Dragon Age: Origins shattered all expectations, cementing a place for itself in the hearts of all RPG lovers, not to mention ensuring BioWare a fatter bank account.
But as is the case with all things, not all Dragon Age games are created equal. Here, then, is our list of Dragon Age games, ranked from best to worst.
1. Dragon Age: Origins
Dragon-slaying has never been this electrifying!
Is anyone even surprised Dragon Age: Origins makes the first on our list of Dragon Age games? Dragon Age: Origins brought the magic and wonder of Baldur’s Gate to a new era. You want a massive, mythical world populated by elves, dragons, and other such fantasy creatures? Check! How about an epic story pitting myriad races, political and religious ideologies, and larger-than-life characters against each other? Check! How about a combat system that’s as intuitive as it is immersive, that allows you to pit brain and brawn against villains so vile they’d make Sauron squirm in his armchair? Check again!
The game is set in Ferelden, one kingdom among many in a large continent known as Thedas. Ferelden is beset by war and threatened by a looming demonic invasion – a threat only you can stop, if you can manage to get everybody to kiss, make up, and shake hands without stabbing each other in the back long enough to focus on a common foe, that is.
In Origins, as in all the other Dragon Age games, the races don’t have too high an opinion of each other. Humans treat the once-powerful elves like they’re the scum of the earth, the dwarves are too proud and too busy tinkering with their tiny tools to meddle with non-dwarven affairs, and the imposing Qunari just want to conquer the world.
Playtime with zombies
To complicate matters, mages are generally distrusted and often find themselves at odds with the Templar Order. Mages who refuse to submit to the Circle of Magi – an organization that trains and governs mages – are known as apostates. While some apostates just want to be left alone, others can prove dangerous, and can even become vessels for demonic possession. For these reasons, the templars hunt down all mages who are not part of the Circle of Magi.
Then you’ve got the Grey Wardens, a specialized order of warriors devoted to vanquishing the demonic darkspawn. As a potential Warden yourself, your goal in the game is to prevent the Archdemon and his army from destroying the world.
And what’s a great RPG without awesome side characters? Origins gave us one of gaming’s most memorable femme fatales in the form of Morrigan the shapeshifting apostate. You can even romance her, along with most of the others (sadly, there is no option to romance the dog). Did we mention Morrigan’s mother can transform into a dragon?
Summoning fireballs, Morrigan-style
Like BioWare’s vaunted Mass Effect series, the Dragon Age games feature branching dialogue options that you can navigate in different ways, allowing you to befriend or make enemies of the various characters found in the game. Important politics and the very fate of the world are decided by these choices, so no pressure!
Last but not least, Origins’ core gameplay of exploration and combat borrows heavily from Baldur’s Gate. It takes a top-down approach, giving you a bird’s eye view of the land and therefore tactical advantage in combat. Battle can be paused, allowing you to give each party member a unique command, from moving to a particular spot to attacking a specific foe. It’s a tried-and-tested system that never gets old, and in Origins, it works wonders.
To put it simply, Dragon Age: Origins is the Dragon Age game that started it all.
Our rating – 5/5
2. Dragon Age: Inquisition
Ankle-deep in Inquisition's beautiful water
As the third and latest entry in the Dragon Age franchise, Dragon Age: Inquisition has a lot to live up to. Thankfully, with Inquisition, BioWare shows us it knows exactly what it’s doing with the franchise.
Inquisition begins by literally exploding in your face. As the only survivor of a cataclysm that turns a mountain to dust and slaughters a great number of mages and templars alike, you are treated with both suspicion and reverence. When it’s discovered that only you have the ability to close the portals through which demons are now pouring into Thedas, however, you become the only hope in a battle to save the world.
In dragon territory
Size matters in Inquisition, which covers not just Ferelden, but also its neighboring country of Orlais. Inquisition’s gameworld is massive and brimming with content, so much so that it could take anyone over 80 hours to complete the game. The game also has you making (or destroying) even bigger alliances – with entire nations and institutions so powerful their rise or fall could change the fate of thousands. In Origins, you’re a heroic warrior with a band of like-minded individuals; in Inquisition, you’re the ruler of a rising power.
Inquisition is also indescribably beautiful to look at, and, to date, is the best-looking of all Dragon Age games.
None can withstand the Inquisitor's might
But lest you think Inquisition has focused on quantity over quality, think again. Inquisition has some incredible writing. All those difficult moral choices that had you grinding your teeth in Origins? They’re back in full force in Inquisition. And when you’re not weighing the pros and cons of sending a team of loyal soldiers to their deaths, you can, once again, charm the pants off supporting characters for more private (but no less engaging!) adventures in bed. Inquisition also gives us even more memorable characters, from the battle-hungry yet laidback Iron Bull to the irreverent and impulsive thief, Sera.
Inquisition’s combat is a departure from Origins’, occurring in real-time as well as employing a third-person, over-the-shoulder perspective. With a push of a button, however, you can bring back the top-down, tactical combat of old, so at the end of the day, everybody’s a winner.
Our rating – 5/5
3. Dragon Age II
Aim right between the eyes!
While it doesn’t stray too far from the formula that made Origins such a hit, Dragon Age II introduces some changes that have caused some dissension among fans.
For starters, your main character has a name! Well, you can still pick his or her first name, but the family name is always “Hawke.” Hawke can only be human, which fans of elves and dwarves probably found a tad racist.
Hawke looking badass
A heavy dose of lightning magic
But perhaps the biggest issue people had about Dragon Age II was that it is largely an urban adventure. After fleeing Ferelden during the events of Origins, Hawke travels to the city of Kirkwall where a vast majority of the game takes place. The game spans a decade, and follows Hawke’s exploits in the city, narrating his rise from refugee-turned-mercenary to Champion of Kirkwall and beyond. Hawke’s story culminates in a bloody war between the mages and the templars, a momentous event whose shockwaves continue to be felt in Inquisition.
Some of the game’s characters also lack the drawing power of its predecessor’s. Still, Dragon Age II gave us the smooth-talking Varric, who showed us what a clean-shaven dwarf looks like long before The Hobbit appeared in the theatres.
Our rating – 3/5
4. (Dis)honorable mentions?
What’s that, you say? There are only three Dragon Age games? Well, that's where you're mistaken, but we wish in all honesty that you were right.
While set in the same universe as Origins, Dragon Age II, and Inquisition, the next three games are what hardcore gamers wouldn’t call “proper” Dragon Age games. For one, they’re aimed at the casual crowd. They’re also remarkably light on lore and gameplay.
Tiles... tiles everywhere....
Dragon Age as a cartoon...
Dragon Age Journeys and its sequel, Dragon Age Legends, are both 2-D flash-based games with turn-based combat. Story-wise, both are set between Origins and Dragon Age II.
Journeys makes use of a virtual game board that’s partitioned into hexagonal tiles over which you can maneuver your troops. Legends, a Facebook game, employs a simple squad formation comprised of the frontline, where you position your melee warriors; and the place at the back where your long range fighters can chill while watching the former get butchered.
It kinda looks like chess...
The third game, Heroes of Dragon Age, does not present a new story, but a series of hypothetical versions of canonical events in the Dragon Age mythos. It’s a free-to-play game for iOS and Android devices. Your goal is to collect characters, whom you then arrange into squads and throw into combat against the A.I.’s or another player’s minions. You can evolve or combine units to transform them into stronger versions of themselves, but if you want to own the cream of the crop, you’ll have to purchase them using real money. And since there are over a hundred characters, that could mean spending big bucks just to stay on top of the competition. Ouch!
With little-to-no stories and overly simplistic gameplay, these three titles may amuse your mom or some of the younger fans. Hardcore PC gamers, however, should probably steer clear of them.
Our rating – 1/5
So there you have it, folks: our list of Dragon Age games, ranked from best to worst. What about you? Do you agree with our ranking? Which of the Dragon Age games do you think deserves top spot, and which do you feel should be consigned to the void, like a filthy darkspawn fresh from the Fade?
