The Best Order to Play Dragon Age Games
Dragon Age is a franchise of role-playing games (RPGs). Dragon Age video games are known by players worldwide by their quality, graphics, narrative, soundtrack and unique companions. Due to the richness of detail and lore present in each Dragon Age game, these games are highly regarded by RPG fans around the world.
What Are Dragon Age Games Like?
In general, Dragon Age games are narrative, story-driven RPGs, in which the player is able to create a customized main character, or select from a character present, and participate in the storyline of each game. In Dragon Age games, the player character is frequently presented with choices that impact on the fate of the storyline.
Dragon Age video games share similarities to other classic RPGs, such as Baldur's Gate (1998) and Neverwinter Nights (2002). Among the shared similarities, these games feature multiple dialogue options, an atmospheric medieval world and inventory management, along with other elements typically found in RPGs.
Dragon Age video games are set in a medieval high fantasy world, with magic, dragons and kingdoms. In these games, the player characters often participate in epic storylines. Dragon Age games often feature diary entries, journals and log pieces which can be read by the player character, contributing to the overall lore and backstory of each game. Players who search for details are certain to find a lot of content in Dragon Age video games.
Dragon Age games feature immersive game worlds which can be discovered by the player character, which are inhabited by multiple NPCs (non-player characters) as well as companions who can be recruited. The NPC inhabitants of Dragon Age games as well as the companions provide dialogues, comments and remarks, as well as often their opinions on various subjects, which greatly contributes to the immersion of the player in the world of the Dragon Age games. Players who decide to talk to the many NPCs in these games are sure to find an impressive amount of content for RPG fans.
Considering that Dragon Age games feature a seamless cutscene system, in which the player character can at any time talk to NPCs, as long as the player character is not engaged in combat, the Dragon Age games provide quite an immersive and cinematic experience to their narrative. Along with epic soundtrack often present in these games, playing a Dragon Age game can be an immersive and epic experience of medieval high fantasy. For these reasons, Dragon Age games are among the favorites of RPG fans.
Dragon Age games also allow players to choose how to develop their player characters throughout the gameplay. Players can choose attributes, which affect the amounts of damage dealt, health points and so on, and also the skills of the main character, which allow the character to perform new special skills. For this reason, the games can be adapted to suit different playstyles.
Are Dragon Age Games Open World?
I often see the question whether Dragon Age games are open world. I believe the answer is "it depends", and it depends on what you consider to be open world. There are different opinions on what it means for a game to be "open world".
Dragon Age games are not open world in the same sense as The Witcher 3, Grand Theft Auto V or Red Dead Redemtpion 2. They are as open world as The Witcher (2007). In other words, Dragon Age video games in general feature large landscapes which can be discovered by the player, but these landscapes feature barriers which do not allow the player character to go beyond their limits. To put it simply, the locations in these games are large, but limited, whereas in typical open world games the player character is allowed a nearly limitless freedom of movement, such as the one seen in the first 3D Grand Theft Auto game, Grand Theft Auto III (2001). However, considering that the locations of the Dragon Age games are large and that the player character is allowed the freedom of adventuring in these locations however they like, some players describe Dragon Age games as open world games.
Personally, I dispute describing Dragon Age games as open world RPGs. Instead, I describe them as RPGs with large locations, such as Neverwinter Nights (2002) and The Witcher (2007). An open world RPG would have no loading screen or break between different locations, such as is the case with The Witcher 3, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. While these games may have some loading time when travelling around the game world, there are no breaks in the sense that the player character can seamlessly traverse between different locations.
In the end, considering that Dragon Age video games are RPGs, it doesn't matter much whether they are open world or not. In my opinion, the most important qualities of RPGs are immersion, storyline and role-playing, not the size of the locations or whether the player character can seamlessly traverse the game world or whether it is open world or not. Dragon Age video games are immersive, atmospheric RPGs, with deep role-playing options, character customization and unique storylines, and for these reasons the Dragon Age games are great examples of excellent RPGs.
Is There an Order to Play the Dragon Age Games?
Dragon Age video games can be played and enjoyed in any order, as their stories are self-contained, which means that the player is not required to have prior knowledge of other Dragon Age games in order to comprehend the story. On the other hand, the Dragon Age games are set in the same universe, and their different story events are often connected. For this reason, playing the Dragon Age games in chronological story order is suggested to have the most comprehensive story experience possible, as well as appreciating the lore and backstory of each Dragon Age game.
One important reason for considering to play the Dragon Age games in chronological story order is that in some cases these games allow the player to import save games from the previous game in order to adapt the game world to the choices made by the player character in the previous game. This aspect contributes to the immersion of the player in the current Dragon Age game, and should be considered by players who want the most immersive story experience possible.
The Story Timeline Order of Dragon Age Games
This is the story timeline order of the Dragon Age video games. This is the chronological order in which the story events of each Dragon Age game take place. This is the suggested order in which to play the Dragon Age games for the most comprehensive story experience possible.
Dragon Age: Origins
Dragon Age Journeys
Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening
Dragon Age II
Dragon Age Legends
Dragon Age: The Last Court
Dragon Age: Inquisition
Heroes of Dragon Age
Considering that Dragon Age Journeys unlocks content for Dragon Age: Origins, it would be reasonable to suggest to play this game after beginning to play Dragon Age: Origins, but before concluding that game.
Such as in the case of Dragon Age Journeys and Dragon Age: Origins, Considering that Dragon Age Legends unlocks content for Dragon Age II, it would be reasonable to suggest to play this game after beginning to play Dragon Age II, but before concluding that game.
The game Heroes of Dragon Age is not set in the same continuity as the other Dragon Age video games. Instead, this game focuses on "what if" scenarios. For this reason, I placed this game separately in my chronological story order of the Dragon Age games.
If you are interested in the story timeline order of RPG video games, you may also be interested in checking out the story timeline orders of Dungeons & Dragons, Final Fantasy, The Elder Scrolls and The Witcher.
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