Been a fan since the start, so here’s my two cents:

Dragon Age Origins is amazing. Buy each of the expansions. Save files transfer from expansion to expansion, and there are also a few DLCs for the base game. Usually everything is sold in one package - either the Ultimate Edition on Steam (which can also be modded), or GoG. GamePass only has the basegame.

Once you’ve completed the final DAO expansion (Witch Hunt), DA2 is worth playing at least once for its story. It has two expansions (Mark of the Assassin and Legacy) both of which are improvements on the base game. Don’t bother with any other DLC unless you get it all in a package deal. Save file transfers directly into DA2 from DAO.

Once you’ve completed DA2, DAI is also worth playing (I personally liked it more than 2, but YMMV). Mainline it if you start getting bored, as the main quest is worth the playthrough. It had three expansions, the first two played during the main campaign (both endgame) and one postgame expansion. All are worth playing, but The Descent and Trespasser are the most important for the overall world. DAI saves are a bit weird, as they don’t come from DA2. Instead, you fill in your choices in the Dragon Age Keep (should be first result on Google) and export them to DAI. I suggest jotting down major choices as you go.

Outside of the three games, there’s also a series of novels and a Netflix series, as well as a series of comics. The first five and following three comics are available in collections, generally pretty cheaply. Novels are printed to order. If you enjoy the stories in the games, I strongly recommend Asunder by David Gaider and The Masked Empire by Patrick Weekes. Tevinter Nights was great, but it may lose relevance when the new game comes out in the coming couple of years, as it was written as a kind of preview for what’s coming up. The Netflix series was good, but likely of little relevance to the greater narrative.

Honestly, all three games are worth playing in order. There’s nothing atrocious about any of them (DAI won game of the year in 2014), although none have aged super well. In the case of DA2, it may be worth mainlining if the environments bother you (game was made in 18 months, so most maps were recycled several times). If you do mod DAO, just do texture mods for now; there’s some great stuff out there, but only really worthwhile for later playthroughs.

If you find yourself really loving DAO, Baldur’s Gate 3 is a spiritual successor to it and a direct sequel to the games that were DAO’s original inspiration. Do check that out when it comes out at the end of the week if DAO is your jam.

Feel free to DM me if you have any other questions!

I know it’s an unpopular opinion, but I really love Dragon Age: Inquisition. It has huge flaws, yes. Chiefly having way too much generic filler sidequesting.

Do note that you’ll need the DLC to get the most important part of the story. (Thanks EA.)

To be fair, I am not the model series fan. I gave up on Origins in the 12 hours of identical dungeon corridors underneath the dwarf city. Never played DA2. Love KotOR, Jade Empire (still holds up surprisingly well!), and Mass Effect, though.

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 thought DA:I was a perfectly cromulent game.

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.

Dragon Age Origins, this is the way.

Origins is definitely the best and the closest to that classic Bioware feel you like.

DA2 was polarizing but I enjoyed it. Very different from the first mechanically. Worth playing tho, IMHO.

DA:I was… not fun for me. I feel like they tried to modernize the formula and added all the worst parts of modern (at the time) games, namely HUGE time sinks for no reason because it’s not a fucking MMORPG that makes money by the hour. /deep breath Sorry, I am still a little bitter at how that game turned out. Anyways, probably worth checking out, maybe you will feel differently. But it wasn’t for me.

Origins and the Awakening expansion. The rest are just kind of bad to play, imo. Not to say you wont enjoy the experience, I just think they’re unfun.