Never played Dragon Age, should I start with Origins? Does DA2 suck?

[aaltair]

Like the title says. I was thinking of playing the most recent one but then figured since I've never played any of them I should start with the Origins? Does it matter; do you get more out of the story overall if you start from the beginning or are they unrelated? Also from what I can tell, people hated the second one. Should I just plan on Origins and Inquisition and skip the second one? Thanks!

[EssArrBee]

Origins is great to start with if you like those fun Bioware RPGs. Skip Dragon Age 2, you aren't missing anything. There is some story that you won't get from that game, but it's not essential to the experience. 

[aaltair]

Thanks! I think I just need something to distract myself from the fact that I can't really play the new Witcher until I get a graphics card upgrade :( Husband is playing Inquisition on xbox, looks fun.

[CJ2311]

There's not much point in playing Dragon Age Origins before Inquistion if you ask me... Knowing what the chantry is as well as the fade could be useful though, especially if you're planning on playing a mage.

As for Dragon Age 2, it's a crappy game so I didn't bother with it, and I didn't feel like I was missing out on much in Inquisition.

[paradoxbound]

Play DA:O for the story it is brilliant best of the three, there are some nice mods on Nexus that will make it a little bit better. Not played DA:2 but friends tell me despite it's flaws it has a decent plot and characterisation. I have played DA:I brilliant party banter and some great moments in the main questline but a lot of it is grinding. The multiplayer was a huge disappointment to me. I have over 3,000 hours clocked up on ME3 multiplayer but DA:I  multiplayer was broken on launch and has a number of fundamental design flaws that make it sub optimal.

[aaltair]

Well I picked up Origins for $9 and figured I'd give it a go. Too a brief look at the Nexus mod page for it and I'm wondering, should I even bother with mods? I found this: https://wiki.step-project.com/User:Neovalen/Origins_Revisited_-_Ultimate_Edition but all the mods are labeled 'TBD' and as I have no desire to spend the next 4 months modding DA:O like I did Skyrim, I'm just wondering if someone would tell me if I should even bother with mods for Origins and if so, are there a handful of must-have's you would recommend? I've never played the game at all so I don't think I need any story or mechanics changes, probably just some things to make it look a bit updated? Any suggestions welcome! :)

[bern43]

I played it without mods and really enjoyed it.

[aaltair]

For any other late bloomers out there wondering this, I just finished playing through Origins and DA2 and am really glad I played both, definitely worth it and DA2 does not suck IMO.