Dragon Age Month DLC – Playing Favorites

Welcome to Dragon Age Month! I had so much fun with Mass Effect Month, and it’s not a secret I love Dragon Age even more than I love Mass Effect, so this is a match made in the Golden City. Each day this month we’ll be tackling a different question, so be sure to chime in with your own answers each day this month!

Day One:  Which is your favorite Dragon Age game?

Well, it goes without saying that Dragon Age: Origins is my favorite. I certainly plaster this picture here any time I have the chance.

I do think that, in addition to being a good RPG game with action elements, Dragon Age: Origins came into my life at the right time. I loved it for the same reasons I loved Mass Effect 2 insofar as it has a tight story and great characters that I fell in love with. After playing Baldur’s Gate, I can understand the meme I saw once that called Dragon Age: Origins a 3D version of Baldur’s Gate. While it is not the same story, I can see how BioWare took that formula and improved it, the same way Mass Effect 2 took Mass Effect and improved it.

However, I recently finished playing Dragon Age II again, and after having a chance to explore it more through a different lens, I appreciate it quite a bit more than I did when I first played it. Sure, the environments are copy/pasted and the elves are ugly, but it told a tight story and I was invested in all of the companion characters, even the ones that I didn’t “like” on a personal level.

Considering the game had less development time than Dragon Age: Origins, and had to not only build on the previous story, create all new assets, and bridge the decade gap between Dragon Age: Origins and what would eventually become Inquisition (and did I mention the short development time?) it is really a remarkable feat. There will be a second look post coming soon, and I’ll talk a little more about my experience playing it and looking at it less as “wanting more Origins” and instead as Dragon Age II.

All I have to add is that I think this is going to be a very fun month.

Have you played any of the Dragon Age games? Which is your favorite? What is the craziest thing you’ve heard about Dragon Age II? Let me know in the comments!

Dareth shiral,
~Athena

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