Looking back on 15 years of Dragon Age reviews—including that Dragon Age 2 score we've never stopped defending

GamesRPGDragon AgeLooking back on 15 years of Dragon Age reviews—including that Dragon Age 2 score we’ve never stopped defendingWhen 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, EA)

Hawke fighting Darkspawn in Dragon Age 2.

Jump to:Dragon Age: OriginsDragon Age 2Dragon Age InquisitionDragon Age: The Veilguard

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.

One of the benefits of being a games publication that’s been running since the Stone Age (that is, the era where we used to get stoned and make games magazines) is that we have a deep history of articles on almost any gaming topic. That, of course, includes a creaking library of game reviews—you name it, we probably put a score on it.

So, as we celebrate the 15th anniversary of Dragon Age, I thought it would be illuminating to look back on our reviews for each game in the series. They say if you don’t learn from history, you’re doomed to repeat it—though in this case, we might have preferred if BioWare had repeated itself a bit more post-Origins…

Dragon Age: Origins

(Image credit: EA)

Released: November 2009Score: 94%Verdict: “A truly astonishing game. Vast, vivid, and microscopically detailed. Dragon Age is the RPG of the decade.”

Origins was a watershed moment for RPGs, and you can really see that in contemporary reviews like this. The world-building, the character approval system, the moral choices, even small details like the merchants in camp having their own dialogue and storyline—all of it felt groundbreaking and exciting. And all of it contributed to that whopping score—one of the highest we’ve ever handed out.

In fact, it was so good we reviewed it twice! Sort of. See, in this era our UK and US teams didn’t get along as well as we do now (probably still bearing grudges over the War of Independence back then) and we actually often did separate reviews. So in addition to our 94% UK review, we also did a US review that scored it slightly lower—a 92%. The copy was just as effusive in its praise, though, calling it “an outstanding story-driven RPG with fantastic writing, RPG depth and tough tactical combat”, and “BioWare’s best RPG since Baldur’s Gate 2”. How to explain the 2 point drop? Probably a dash of that classic American pessimism, I expect.

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Dragon Age 2

(Image credit: BioWare, EA)

Hawke and Fenris fighting a Darkspawn in Dragon Age 2.

Released: March 2011Score: 94%Verdict:“The best RPG combat ever. Not gaming’s best story, but maybe its best storytelling. Darker, sexier, better.”

Ok, uh, we maybe got a bit over-excited with this one. It’d been only about a year and a half since Origins, so I suspect our reviewer may still have been riding the wave of excitement of that initial release and its subsequent DLCs. He may also have been quite sleep-deprived after smashing through the whole game in a weekend (disclaimer: pure speculation). I have the greatest respect for Rich—he’s a fantastic writer, and ultimately all reviews are personal, subjective, and very much of the moment they were posted. But there’s a reason this review’s a bit infamous.

Where we’d called Origins the best RPG of its decade (the 2000s), this review declared Dragon Age 2 potentially the best RPG of the decade to come (the 2010s). “Dragon Age 2 is the most impressive attempt I’ve seen to make the decisions players make in a game mean something,” we said, referring to the decade-long struggle for the fate of Kirkwall, and called its combat system “spring-loaded” with “lightning fast moves”.

You will still find people on our teamwilling to defend Dragon Age 2 to the hilt, and there was certainly a lot to enjoy about it—including its memorable characters, experimental storytelling, and distinctive setting. But I simply can’t sanction it receiving the same score as Origins given its much smaller scope, buggy launch, dreadful encounter design, reused dungeon maps, and other seriously rough edges. You could definitely feel the limited time and budget in this one, even if a lot of BioWare’s skill still shone through.

Dragon Age Inquisition

Dragon Age 2

It’s here that we see the scores for the series start to flag, though 87% is still more than respectable. As the series expanded into huge, open-world environments, we praised its “long and satisfying journey”, and the greater opportunity to immerse yourself in the lore and intricacies of Thedas.

We did criticise its abundance of weak sidequests, saying “the worst resemble MMO fetch quests”, but said “there’s plenty of substance too”, praising the impact of player choices and the memorable story missions. It’s definitely a noticeably much less effusive review than we gave to the first two. In those we were celebrating what felt like major milestones for gaming, whereas here it feels like we’re simply acknowledging a very large and competently made RPG.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard

(Image credit: BioWare, EA)

A mage casting a fire spell in Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

Released: October 2024Score: 79%Verdict:“A genuinely enjoyable, gorgeous action-RPG that lacks the storytelling nuance of previous Dragon Age games.”

With a decade’s gap since Inquisition, it was inevitable The Veilguard would take the series in a new direction—and given BioWare’s spotty track record over that period (two major flops and a high profile cancellation), on some level it’s a serious success just that the game isn’t some kind of major disaster. But the rich storytelling and dark fantasy atmosphere of Origins couldn’t feel further away in The Veilguard’s bright and bland world, and it’s hardly reassuring for series fans that the focus now seems to be on slick combat instead.

(Image credit: BioWare, EA)

Rook, Harding, Neve, and Bellara in Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

So there we are—our full review history with the Dragon Age series laid bare. Did we always get it right? Maybe not, but that’s always the risk of carving your opinions permanently into the firmament of the internet. I think what we did do every time was wear our earnest love for Dragon Age on our sleeves. Here at PCG, we adore RPGs, and for a while Dragon Age represented how big, exciting, and spectacular they could be with major modern resources behind them. Maybe it doesn’t quite hold that position any more, but the shadow it has cast across the industry has given rise to countless other wonderful games—no matter what happens from here, that’s a legacy to be proud of.

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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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Dragon Age: Origins#

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Dragon Age 2#

Dragon Age Inquisition#

Dragon Age: The Veilguard#

Dragon Age: Origins

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Dragon Age 2

Dragon Age Inquisition

Dragon Age: The Veilguard