Definitely play them in order of release. They’re all very different games but an amazing series overall and definitely worth playing

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.

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’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. :)

The first and it’s addons. Full stop.

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 love love love origins and da2, i have da2 tattoos, but i don’t know if I’d really recommend them. dai is overambitious and less well written than the other 2. I would give them all a shot but not feel bad about bouncing off the combat and graphics of any of them.

I would agree with most about DA:O and Awakening. I consider that DA2 is also a good game, BUT it is really different from DA:O, and I feel like I liked it more after having replayed it later on.

I don’t really like DA:I, and it is only worth it if you also play the endgame DLC, because the base game ending is really underwhelming. And, the game managed to implement everything that I hate about “Open World” games.