I played all 3 games, not finished Da and risen yet, but one thing that bugged me so much on risen were the chat dialogs and the speeches, Da and dd2 are so much better on that one.
Just the quality of speech and dialogs in risen made it seem like it's done by an amature flash game maker where they speak in their own dialogs.. seriously.
But on the otherhand Risen is pretty beautyfull and a large area to explore and down side of that is there are no markers or anything on the map, nor on the npcs that give quests or anything.
And the combat system on Risen lacks alot aswell, DD2 and DA:O plays much smoother.
In my opinion if you go for a game, get DD2 and DA:O for sure, if you finished them and your pc can handle Risen, play it if you have nothing else.
Im on 60% of of DA:O and the story and game play has been awsome so far, it only lacks freedom of movement, but it kinda blends in with game and you barely notice it, since you pick up quests and be on your way, unless you really like exploring then it might be a miss.
Also DA:O feels like a finished game, I haven't encountered bugs or anything like that and havent heard of other bugs then the DEX dagger one for rogue's but I play mage and don't have a rogue in my team that's active.
In Risen again the chat dialogs and what ever are not finished, you hoover above spikes and couple of more things like that make you feel it's not a finished game.
Playing through DD2 I encountered minor bugs, but it doesn't give you the impression it's not finished.
So in my opinion, 1: DA:O - 2:DD2 3:If you must, Risen.
You play DA:O as a mage what schools did you take on the begining For me primal(fire blast) and creation(Gylph)
