Dragon Age: Dreadwolf in Alpha Stage and Prequel Comic Announced

[Winter]

Well, this is it, the 4th game in the Dragon Age series is in Alpha Stage. What that means it the game is now playable from start to finish and the developers now only have to worry about polishing and refining it to get it ready. On top of that, around the same time BioWare and Dark Horse announced a 4 part comic that is a direct prequel to DADW and that the first issue will be released in January of next year.

Now, while there have been many comics that are set before Dreadwolf this is stated to lead directly into the upcoming game which hasn't really been the case for other issues which have all had mostly standalone stories that only loosely tie into the overarching story of the series (such as Varric and Fenris making appearances and mention of the major events of the series but don't affect the story we're actually watching). And while these stories might very well tie into the game via introducing major characters (I hope Vaea becomes a companion as she's a lot of fun and I hope she can be romanced if you choose a female character) the upcoming issues, which are called the Missing, is being set up as directly tied to the actual game.

And since prequel comics are usually timed to released only 3 or 5 months before the game comics out And that Alpha stages usually take about 6 or 7 months to finish up my bet is we'll see DADW be released in either August or September of next year.

[hammerofglass]

It's one of my favorite series but I lost any hope this might be good when EA rebooted development to make it a "live service" game and everyone from the old days quit.

[Thebestoftherest]

I hope they don't pull a neither realm and keeps the prequel comic going long after what it supposed to build up to is out and most people don't care for the comics.

[Winter]

It's one of my favorite series but I lost any hope this might be good when EA rebooted development to make it a "live service" game and everyone from the old days quit.

Well they Re-Rebooted it back to a single player game a while back and keep in mind that this is a video the former lead developer said after he left the game.


youtu.be/mfjTv5CkDdg

And keep in mind this is someone who, at the same time, called "BioWare Magic BULLSHIT" and has no real issue expressing his feelings about how the company is handled. In fact just about everyone who left the company said that the game was doing well and that those in change were doing a great job with said game being in good hands and in top condition and, again, these are people who made their feelings on quitting clear so they have no reason to sugarcoat this.

As always I'm approaching this with an open mind because there have been plenty of stories that I thought would bomb that ended up being great (Lilo and Stitch, The Tyranny of King Washington and She-Ra and the Princesses of Power) and other stories I thought were surefire wins that ended up being duds (Mass Effect 3 and The Last Jedi) and from what I've heard from the people who worked on the game as well as those who Left it, I'm causally optimistic.

It really sounds like they're taking fan feedback and haven't rushed this project and that EA actually took the failings of MEA and Anthem to heart and have been much more hands off. Don't get me wrong EA is still terrible but here they've seem to have been trying to do better and reduce crutch time and let the developers work on the game as they see fit.

In fact the only real drama around the game was the firing of Greg Ellis and that was the idiots own fault by burning bridges he was still on. And the developers have been overall open on how development has been going which is again true of those who left the game and nothing has me that worried.

Will Dragon Age: Dreadwolf be a good or even great game, I can't say and I also can't act like none of the things that happened in development worry me But the game is going to be single player with no "Live-Serves" elements, there's been a LOT more talk about the story rather then gameplay and again there's been no real report of any series development issues.

With MEA and Anthem there were a LOT of worrying signs right off the bat and hardly anyone quit during the the development of those games but just about everyone noted how awful the development process was During Development with no real interest in the story of either game and feeling like game the developers didn't really want to work on.

And finally BioWare and EA KNOW they're in trouble, with both MEA and Anthem being massive bombs and the companies admitting that. The Mass Effect: Legendary Edition won back a lot of good will but there's a difference between a good remaster that reminds everyone of better times and a fresh new game that shows that the company still has what it takes to make great stories.

Here's hoping.