Dragon Age: Origins' Fade level is the sort of funky failed experiment you just wouldn't see in a triple-A RPG these days

GamesRPGDragon AgeDragon Age: Origins' Fade level is the sort of funky failed experiment you just wouldn’t see in a triple-A RPG these daysWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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(Image credit: BioWare)

Dragon Age character, Morrigan, who is known as the Witch of the Wilds

Dragon Age at 15(Image credit: BioWare)All this week we’re looking back on the best of the Dragon Age series, to celebrate its 15th anniversary. We’ve got loads of greatDragon Age opinions and retrospectives, and we’ll be adding more to the list in the days to come.

Dragon Age at 15

(Image credit: BioWare)All this week we’re looking back on the best of the Dragon Age series, to celebrate its 15th anniversary. We’ve got loads of greatDragon Age opinions and retrospectives, and we’ll be adding more to the list in the days to come.

(Image credit: BioWare)

Morrigan, the Witch of the Wilds in the Dragon Age serries, shown wielding magic in front of a Darkspawn.

All this week we’re looking back on the best of the Dragon Age series, to celebrate its 15th anniversary. We’ve got loads of greatDragon Age opinions and retrospectives, and we’ll be adding more to the list in the days to come.

A real nasty ugly guy who looks like he got lost on his way toScornforces you to take a nap, bringing all the momentum of the Broken Circle quest to a grinding halt in favor of an hour-plus digression into surreal solo puzzle-solving.Everyonehates The Fade: Lost in Dreams, but you know what? There’s nothing else like it in the Dragon Age series.

Sleepy time

(Image credit: BioWare)

Dragon Age: Origins rogue slashes at an Arcane Horror in the Fade.

Dragon Age: Origins' strengths are character writing and tactical group combat, so of course The Fade sequence has you exploring completely solo and in contemplative silence. Your jaunts into companion dreams are some genuinely great explorations of their respective characters, but they serve as these brief blasts of fresh air before your head gets held down for yet more surreal dissociation.

My overriding memories of first going through The Fade in 2010 are of frustration and feeling lost: Pushing through promising paths only to find obstacles I didn’t have the form for yet, muddling through solo combat encounters, and generally just wishing I could get back to the main plot. Amod to skip the section entirely(save the companion scenes and big fight at the end) has remained one of the most popular Origins addons at the Nexus for 14 years.

Sickos yes

Dragon Age: Origins Ultimate Edition Mission Lost in dreams - YouTubeWatch On

Dragon Age: Origins Ultimate Edition Mission Lost in dreams - YouTube

And yet, I find myself having this fascination and nostalgia for The Fade: Lost in Dreams. Maybe I’ve played one too many incomprehensible indie horror games at this point, but there is something genuinely dreamlike and unsettling about the much-maligned exploration and puzzle solving in this sequence that really speaks to me.

Looking at the Fade’s appearances in later Dragon Ages, it might as well be a layer of Hell from D&D or something: Just a nasty place where demons come from and big, high level plot points happen. Lost in Dreams' isolating exploration amid such a strange implementation of familiar Dragon Age assets has this almost vaporwave quality that I find myself digging more and more as years pass. It’s more a really experimental, fan-made Dragon Age mod, but it’s part of the official game.

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The Fade: Lost in Dreams really feels like it should have been cut, this vestigial digression that kills all the momentum of its parent questline, and that makes it even more interesting. Surely the one-off shapeshifting mechanic and companion dreams were somebody’s (maybe multiple somebodies') darlings, not quite fitting in anywhere else, but too dear to get rid of.

For better and for worse, you just wouldn’t see this kind of thing in a game of Origins' scale and profile nowadays: Too many developers working on it, too much money riding on its success, a more pressing and established drive toward flow and approachability. That makes sense, it’s not any kind of moral or artistic failing, but it’s why I think I’ll always cherish Origins' weird little hour-long tumor of a dream sequence.

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Morrigan, the Witch of the Wilds in the Dragon Age serries, shown wielding magic in front of a Darkspawn.

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Sleepy time#

Sickos yes#

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals#

Sleepy time

Sickos yes

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals