The Dragon Age Series

For a long time, Bioware have been my go-to for games. While I could write quite a lot about the Mass Effect series, which will forever be the pinnacle for me in terms of my favourite game series ever, I’m going to be talking about Bioware’s other series: Dragon Age. Spoiler warning for the games (only marginally for the latest release of Dragon Age: Inquisition as I have not yet completed the game). So this is a brief rundown of the games and some thoughts I had about them. I'll probably write an additional commentary on Inquisition once I've completed the game.

The first instalment, Dragon Age: Origins was released in 2009 and immediately hooked me in with the story of the Grey Wardens and the troubles in the fictional setting of Thedas. The main thing I like about the Bioware games in particular is the ability to choose my gender and forge my own heroic path as a woman. In the game, there isn’t much of a distinction about your capabilities as a woman in combat or your leadership ability. There are some moments where your gender singles you out by various characters but otherwise, it’s seen as perfectly normal for you to be engaging in combat and leading an army. The companion characters all have their own motivations and you can have an impact of them depending on the choices you make as you go around saving the world. The games are based around the choices you make and have always been a point of emphasis, particularly in the second and third games as well as in the Mass Effect series. Your choices matter and even little decisions can change different aspects of the later games, which makes the player have some in depth thinking before committing to decisions.

The selling point in Origin, was (funnily enough) the origin stories for your characters and the different races you could play, the typical high fantasy dwarf, human, elf combination. I tried all the Origin stories but ended up completing the game only twice with my Lady Aeducan and Cousland characters. One, I obviously made Queen because who wouldn’t want to become Queen really? The other I kept as a Grey Warden. There is a lot of lore surrounding the games and it is gradually revealed through the discovery of different ‘Codex’ entries where you can read about the different social and political situations of these different races as well as history and other plot related points. All in all, Dragon Age: Origins set the bar for what players could expect from any following games and the evolution of the role-playing genre as a whole.

The story of the Grey Warden was continued in Dragon Age: Awakenings (2010), the expansion to the first game. I’m not going to talk too much about this one considering that it didn’t seem to have a huge impact on the following games that I can see as of yet besides one or two particular characters. In this game, your Hero (or an entirely new one depending on your choices at the end of the previous game) has now become Warden-Commander and leader of the Grey Warden forces in Ferelden. You conscript different companions into the Grey Wardens and are in charge of a keep and the lands that it sits upon. It was this game that introduced us to the characters of Anders and Justice. These two would have significant impact on the rest of the series, which most players never saw coming considering their motivations and general attitudes.

Dragon Age 2 (2011) has always had mixed reviews and generally either loved or hated. The game feels pretty unfinished generally and there is a complete change in most of the systems that players had grown accustomed to in Origins. I didn’t mind DA2 that much, though the repetitive scenery did get to me at one point. You explore one cave and you’ve seen them all. Dragon Age 2 also took from the Mass Effect series and was entirely voice acted, so you could hear your character speaking as your chose your dialogue options from the wheel. It added another important dimension to immersing yourself into the game and provided Hawke with a personality that you could connect with. The characters of Anders and Justice returned, however, with a massive shift from their characterisation in Awakenings. The two had merged as Justice required a host in order to remain alive outside of the Fade (the magical place where demons and spirits reside and where you go when you dream) and Anders had offered as a friend. Instead, Justice became Vengeance and Anders wanted freedom from all Templars and the abuses they suffered at the Circles (think Hogwarts as a prison). No matter what choices you made in the game, the result was always the same, Anders blew everything up and the mage rebellion was born. Still, depending on how your Hawke leaned, you could side with either the Mages or the Templars in the war and support their causes.

And then there’s Inquisition. It was released this year and after a long three year wait, I finally had it. And it was as beautiful as I had hoped. The character creation screen had improved dramatically since DA2, I could have freckles. FRECKLES. There was the addition of scars, which players had previously gotten to try in Mass Effect 1. Players could have two choices of voice actor for their character, British or American. It also re-introduced several aspects from Origins such as the tactical combat mode and the different races. And good grief, are there dragons. So many dragons. Everyone used to joke that there were no dragons in Dragon Age and now you can't go two steps without bumping into one. Also, they are huge.The story is quite interesting from what I've played so far but I’m not quite finished yet as you need a pretty good PC in order to play the game the way it should be. Unfortunately as with most recently released games, there are quite a few glitches and issues that require fixing which will hopefully be remedied soon. Even more unfortunately, the scars and freckles have disappeared since the latest patch was released so… this may be the opportunity to say that you might want to hold off playing the game if you would like those things until we’re several patches in [Edit: Since posting this about five minutes ago, Bioware literally just released an update that restored the scars and freckles. So, play away!].

Now for some actual discussion. I am well aware that Bioware is nowhere near perfect when it comes to some aspects of their games and story-telling, such as the rape and violence against women analogy when it came to the creation of the Darkspawn and the Broodmothers, as well as the implications in both the Mage and City Elf origin stories. It was one of the more disturbing aspects of the series. There is also an underlying current of sexism from some characters when playing as a woman, regardless of the fact that the main religion is run by women. However, in terms of representation, there has been a definite change. Since Dragon Age, there have been more romance options for LBGQT+ players. There was even the addition of several trans characters, in particular, Krem from Inquisition who you get to know and tells his story. He is not treated any differently, nor is he singled out because of his identity. The romance options in particular have changed. Originally, women were only given one or two options of who they could romance as opposed to male players who had several. For the first time in Inquisition, female players have the most romance options available to them. It was an exciting prospect that I wouldn’t be stuck romancing the same guy over and over again in my play throughs.

For me, the story and how my decisions impact the environment around me have always been the highlight of my Bioware experience and are the main reason why I love those games so much. I’m also motivated by the fact that I can play as a female character and not be pinned into certain portrayals and body images. I have the freedom to express myself in how I look and how I act in Bioware games. I have the freedom to actually play as a female character saving the world from certain doom, I’m not stuck as the typical white male hero. For all Bioware’s faults, I will always be thankful for this. Whether it’s as the Warden, Champion or Inquisitor, or even as Commander Shepherd. I’m not considered weak, incapable of leading because of my monthly cycle, not good enough to fight because I’m delicate. My ladies are strong, determined and still able to be feminine. Ladies can be heroes just as much as men can and the Dragon Age series lets me live this role.