If there’s one thing BioWare games are known for, it’s their companions. Almo⛄st every BioWare title features some form of squad system, allowing you to interact with and impact the lives of a myriad of rich, well-written characters.
Unfortunately for fans of Neverwinter Nights 2 and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lord, whilst those games are sequels to oꦍriginal BioWare titles, they were instead developed by Obsidian Entert🎶ainment and therefore excluded from this list.
12 💛 🌃Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition
This is possibly a controversial pick for the bottom spot on this list, but 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Neverwinter Nights didn’t end up this low down by chance. The companions in Neve🥀rwinter Nights come in the form of “h♈enchmen”, with only one being able to follow you around in the base game at any given time.
Worst still, having a henchman actively limits the amount of EXP you can gain. Some of them are interesting, and their loyalt꧙y missions are almost always ꧋worth doing, but all of that is pointless when the game penalizes you for hanging around with them.
11 Mass Effect: Andromedaᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ 🏅
168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Mass Effect: Andromeda, much like the original Mass Effect, only has six recruitable companions. Not every companion ༺in the original Mass Effect was perfect (looking at you, Ashley) but the majority of them proved to be so endearing that they could be recruited a second (or even a third) time in later games.
Now, gamers love to hate on Andromeda for a multitude of reasons, but it's not exactly unfair to say that its companions are underwhelming at best. When compared to characters likes of Garrus and Wrex, similar companions such as Vetra and Drack prove to be nothing more than pale imitations of their predecessors.
10 Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition
The companions in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition anཧd its expansions are numerous and relatively varied in both alignment and personality, with over twenty possible recruits available to bolster your six-man squad.
However, as the game was only the second title BioWare ever developed, they were still getting to grips with certain companion-related mechanics that they’re now famous for. As a result, whilst the recruits in Baldur’s Gate are fun on paper, the inability to impact their stories in meaningful ways earns it a lo♛wer spot on this list.
9 ♍ ♊ Dragon Age 2
168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dragon Age 2 is the often maligned middle child of the Dragoᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚn Age series, frequently criticized for both its overly repetitive gameplay loop and its underwhelming story – especially when compared to its older brother, Dragon Age: Origins.
In fact, Dragon Age 2 falls flat in almost every way when compared to the other two games in the trilogy, and its companions are no exception. New companions such as Varric and returning characters like Anders do (debatably) hit the ma🌌rk, but the likes of Isabela, Aveline, and the Hawke siblings are so forgettable that they bring down Dragon Age 2’s o♏verall ranking.
8 Baldur's Gate 2: Enhanced Edition
Everything about the companion 🦩system in Baldur’s Gate 2 is an overall improvement when compared to its predecessor. Your mileage may vary when considering the actual quality of said companion’s personalities, but the more fleshe꧑d out ways you can interact with them is a discernible step up.
Not only do companions now have more in-depth recruitment missions, both before and after adding them to your party, but Baldꦚur’s Gate 2 also adds the ability to romance some of them too. One of said romance options is a big, evil, bisexual orc called Dorn, which immediately earns Baldur’s Gate 2 a hig🦩her spot than the first title.
7 Dragon 💛Age: Inquis♏ition
A massive step up from Dragon Age 2, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Inquisition introduces players 🔯to several new and compelling companions, such as the swarthy Dorian, the immaculately cool Vivienne, and the much-beloved Iron Bull.
Perhaps the only thing you can truly fault Inquisition for is its lack of returning companions from previous games, with only Varric 🎃returni๊ng as a fully recruitable team member and Leliana instead making an appearance in an advisory role. Hard to fault it too much for that given how many of your companions can straight up die in the first two titles.
6 Mass Effect ꦜ𒁃
168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Mass Effect fans might be a little surprised to see this game so low down on this list, given how influeꦆntial both its companion system and the companions therein would prove to be. Tali, Garrus, and Liara are all characters that were so beloved that they would return as squadmates in the next two games in the trilogy.
Yet, we can’t ignore that the series' obsession with providing Shepard with boring human companions began with its first title, and none are worse than Ashley and Kaidan. Ashley is a literal space racist, and Kaidan has a personality comparable to that of a slice of dry, unbuttered toast. That decision on Virmire may as well be a flip of a coin.
5 Jade Empire💜 🌱
The companions in Jade Empire come in many different shapes and sizes, both literally and metaphorically, but none of them are boring by any stretch of 🦄the imagination. Even the most vanilla picks for companions, like Sky or Sagacious Zu, still have interesting backstories and amusing personalities.
Then you&rs❀quo;ve got characters like Black Whirlwind, Hou, Kang the Mad, and Wild Flower, who do a great job of balancing dark personalities with weird character traits and moments of comic levity. Jade Empire definitely deserves a lot more credit for laying the groundwork for the companion system in the Mass Effect titles.
4 Mass Effect 3 ꦿ ꦦ
Mass Effect 3 is so very close to perfect, it hurts. Returning besties Garrus, Tali, Liara, and (event🌳ually) Wrex obviously earn it some big brownie points, plus Javik is relatively interesting (if perhapsཧ not fleshed out enough) and it was nice to see EDI become fully recruitable.
Then, there are the humans. Ashley and Kaidan are back once again, although at least BioWare gave you the choice between whichever one you hated the least, and the less said about the human meathead 🤡James Vega, the better. Why eꦜxactly this guy got his own animated film instead of Space Batman Garrus Vakarian is a mystery.
3 Star Wars: Knights Of The Old R🎶epublic
Given its age, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Star Wars: Knights of the Olꦫd Republic mi💎ght have some of the most loyal fans out of the games on this list. Characters like Carth Onasi and HK-47 still remain highly beloved to this da๊y, even though KOTOR is quickly approaching its twentieth birthday.
Yet, what KOTOR deserves the most praise for is how it pioneered a system in which your morality directly affects your squadmates. Without spoiling the story, the difference between a Light and Sith playthrough is wildly differ꧋ent because of how your companions react to a couple of very specific moments in the story – a system BioWare carried over to Jade Empire, and later perfected in the likes of Mass Effect and Dragon Age.