Origins is easily the worst game in this series by a fairly wide margin. The story is just a boring 'save the world from evil monstrosity X' plot. A mindless monster with an army of mindless monsters is not a compelling villainous force. Loghain was better, but it really felt like he was spinning his wheels, because the civil war plot never really affected your journey until you called the Landsmeet to resolve it. You come across a singular small skirmish between the Bannorn and Loghain's forces, and that's it.
The plot had no sense of urgency because the darkspawn (and any other villain) will politely wait for you to finish any and every thing you want to do to prepare for them. It is stated in the game that it's a week's journey from Redcliffe to the Circle Tower. So to get the "perfect" resolution to the Redcliffe story, you need to carve through the undead/demon armies, beat the crap out of the Desire Demon, and then journey a WEEK to the Circle Tower to then fiddle around with saving the Mages, however long that takes, and then journey a week back to have the mages do their little ritual. So what, was the demon just lying dormant not doing anything for TWO WEEKS?! And nobody in Redcliffe thought to move a muscle or do anything to get back to normal because they felt the need to wait two weeks for you to come back. Brilliant.
The combat is complete toss, with absolutely game breaking balance issues (Mana Clash, Arcane Warrior and Blood Mage in general), awful healing mechanics that removed all challenge, and a mind-numbingly slow pace that made me want to claw my eyes out (not because I can't handle slow games, I love 4X strategy games, among others, but because the combat was already decided minutes ago and I'm just watching tedious animations play out). While the graphics were passable, the art style was beyond boring. Just brown ground, brown wood, grey stone, grey bricks, and the Deep Roads, oh god. Nothing at all made it stand out. The darkspawn just look like Tolkien orcs, and it seems like they tried to excuse their poor game design with characters stating, "Ferelden is so practical, here, let us tell you about all these other extravagant locales that would be infinitely more interesting if the game were to take place there!"
The characters are the only place that has some fun to be had, most of them are at least fairly interesting, though the whole gift system made earning their affection FAR too simple, so your decisions had little weight on their opinions. The voiceless protagonist feels dead and immersion-breaking. They just walk around with a completely blank expression, carrying out your will while exuding a literal void of interest because they do not express any emotion at any action at all, no matter how abhorrent. The only time they do make a single expression (horror) is when Duncan stabs Jory, which is the only time I DIDN'T want to have an expression, because he was a gormless coward and deserved it, the ponce.
Dragon Age 2 is a step up, in a lot of ways, though it did have some pitfalls. The plot was far more interesting in this game, if mishandled a bit. The story of Hawke and friends trying to take care of their own and work to stem the tide of Kirkwall's descent into madness (and eventually failing) had a much more personal weight to it. The time skips were a bit jarring, but that feeling quickly passed after you started to get your bearings, and catching up with your friends after each one is something I look forward to. Graphics are better, but the textures still look like muddy garbage. However, the art style is an actual style now. The sharp lines of armor, architecture, and art in general is easily distinguishable as Dragon Age, rather than Generic Fantasy Setting D.
Combat is also a step up as the balance is much better, animations are fast and fun, and combat has more of a focus on active skill use rather than passives and sustained modes. Healing is much more scaled back with longer healing and potion cooldowns. The reinforcement waves force you to adapt your tactics mid-battle rather than being able to plan the entire thing out beforehand. A common complaint is that the waves would come from behind and kill their squishies, ruining their battle-plan. No shit? Attacking from a vulnerable flank is obviously good strategy. Perhaps put your mages in a corner, or keep them close and personal with your tank so you can protect them directly, rather than banging your head against the wall and continuing to try an Origins approach for the entire game and then just complaining that it doesn't work. Leveling was also made more interesting, as you now had to make choices on your skill path. Do you upgrade a favored skill, or learn that shiny new passive you've been eyeing? Origins seemed to just have a lot of pointless fluff on it's skill lines. I suppose it is a choice to go down a path that has good skills at the beginning and good skills at the end, or a path that has irrelevant garbage at the beginning and amazing skills at the end, but it isn't a fun one.
The companions here are a joy (even the ones I didn't like as much) because they feel like real people with lives. They have homes, goals, things they do when they aren't with you. They'll even hang out with each other sometimes when you go to visit them (something I was happy to see they lifted for Mass Effect 3). The voiced protagonist, while sometimes having acting of dubious quality, is much more immersive because you can see them react to things. Having tone indicators on dialogue options is also very handy, as more than a few times in Origins I'd say something I'd think was a joke, only to have it be a grave insult, or vice versa, because the sentence given has no context to it.
As for its flaws, it has many. Many enemies are huge damage sponges, which is just tedious, not difficult. Reused caves and dungeons are a common complaint. I've seen it said, and said myself, that it somewhat makes sense because since it IS the same area, why would it wildly change layout all of a sudden, but that only goes so far. When a cave in Sundermount and a mine in the Bone Pit have the exact same layout, something's wrong. Plot threads are sometimes resolved in an unsatisfactory way, or not at all. A lot of the side quests made no damn sense. How do I magically know who exactly to deliver this pile of ambiguous junk to to complete the quest? However despite this, I still had far more fun in Kirkwall than in Ferelden.
Inquisition stands tall above the rest here. I've heard complaints that it's just a 'save the world from evil monstrosity Y' plot again... but wait, isn't that what you LIKED? Sorry Origins fans, but you made that bed. The second game tried to tell a different kind of story with a more small scope feel, and you threw it in their face. You don't get to complain that they went back to a safe plot like this after nearly tearing down the sky in rage at the last one.
However, despite my own annoyance at the main plot, it's everything else that holds it up here. Environments are huge, gorgeous and hi-res, with refreshingly bright colors and varied landscapes, while retaining the unique art style of Dragon Age 2. There are many fetch-quests, true, but there are just as many side quests that are totally optional, yet easily tie back into the main plot and goal of strengthening the Inquisition to face the Elder One. The War Table is thematic and cool, with the approach you use in a lot of them missions causing a different outcome or granting a different reward. Exploration is rewarded well, with hidden treasures, secret dungeons, and puzzles to occupy your time.
Combat is fast, fun, and tactical (though the actual tac-cam controls on PC are infuriating, no question), though the balance goes back to shitting the bed. Knight Enchanters are immortal gods of doom, while Tempests are capable of felling a High Dragon in a single blow (no joke). However things like position and damage management matter more than ever, because healing magic is gone, meaning you need to be active and intelligent when it comes to your mitigative abilities. Dragon battles are just amazing as well. I had tons of fun hunting them all down and collecting their huge troves of treasure.
The crafting system is also very rewarding. The most powerful gear I obtained was a mixture of crafted and unique drops, so you don't NEED to do it if you don't want to, but trust me when I say building a suit of dragonbone plate, and then building the arm and leg modifications to your specifications to grant you a self-tailored masterwork is a great feeling.
Characters here are just a twitch below 2, in my opinion. They're in most cases better written, but for some reason they've gone back to being your pawns, there for the cause, not really bonding or interacting with each other at all outside of party banter. However, they manage to get me invested in their troubles and their goals. Dorian, Iron Bull, Vivienne, and Cassandra all are especially endearing to me. As far as your own character, you're more customizable than ever, with four races of each gender to choose from, two voice actors per gender, and the ability to really flesh out your beliefs and morals through your dialogue options.
I sunk over 100 hours into my first playthrough of Inquisition, and I'm about to sink another 100+ into my second. It is easily the best BioWare has done in years.
