BioWare fans have been waiting onDragon Age: Dreadwolffor quite a while now.Dragon Age: Inquisitionwas released all the way back in 2014, with itsTrespasserDLC wrapping up the story the following year. Many fans are hoping for the game to be released sometime this year or next, but it’s entirely possible thatDragon Age: Dreadwolfmight spend an entire decade in development.
While many series fans would want to get the newDragon Ageas soon as possible, there is another way BioWare could help keep the series alive.Mass Effect: Legendary Editionwas a massive hitand helped to reinvigorate a series that had been dormant since the underwhelming launch ofMass Effect: Andromedain 2017. BioWare could do something similar with itsDragon Agetrilogy, and it might even be a mistake not to.
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A Dragon Age Legendary Edition is a Big Opportunity
Dragon Ageis not a young franchise anymore, withDragon Age: Originslaunching over a decade ago in 2009. While BioWare putDragon Age 2andInquisitionin relatively quick succession,Dreadwolf’s troubled development has dragged on for quite a while. That won’t stop diehard fans from playing the new game, and BioWare has stated that new players will be able to enjoy the game without playing the first three.
However, that doesn’t meanDragon Agecouldn’t still do with some franchise revitalization ahead ofDreadwolf’s release. This was one of the main benefits ofMass Effect: Legendary Edition, which was many players' first interaction with the franchise. Quite a few of those players will probably want to tryMass Effect 4when it finally releases. The remaster bundle also helped to get people talking aboutMass Effectagain, despite the big gap sinceAndromeda.Dragon Age: Dreadwolfis hopefully coming a lot soonerthanMass Effect 4, but that doesn’t meanDreadwolfwouldn’t benefit from the spike in interest that a potentialDragon Age: Legendary Editioncould generate.
Remastering Dragon Age
Of course, generating interest forDreadwolfis not the only potential benefit. The firstDragon Ageis starting to show its age, with former developer David Gaider sayingDA:Originsneeded a remaster. This isn’t just about the graphics, though a fresh coat of paint wouldn’t hurt. The first game is old enough that it’s starting to have stability issues on modern PCs, and fans might appreciate quality-of-life improvements. This includesOriginsonline services, which rely on servers that haven’t existed for several years.Origins' DLC is also quite buggy, with theAwakeningexpansion being notorious for the sheer number of issues that developers left unresolved.
A remasteredDragon Agetrilogywould let BioWare take a second pass at things that didn’t quite work out in the first three games.Dragon Age 2, for example, suffers from several issues brought about by its extremely short development cycle. This included the game’s excessive reuse of the same environments, recycling the same handful of dungeon maps in slightly different configurations. Its combat can also feel excessively padded, throwing almost comically large groups of primarily weak enemies at the player in every encounter.
Meanwhile,Dragon Age: Inquisitionhad a significant problem of player burnout in the game’s earlier stages. This was primarily an issue with the game’s quest system, which tended to pepper an excessive number of objectives around the map. This was especially bad early on, with the early-game Hinterlands zone being particularly notorious.
Addressing some of these issues may or may not go beyond the scope of a simple remaster. However,Mass Effect: Legendary Editionalso featured modifications to the original game’s combat, so this wouldn’t be unprecedented. Developers shouldn’t go overboard changing things, but there’s a lot that BioWare could do to make the trilogy shine and put the franchise’s best foot forward ahead ofDragon Age: Dreadwolf’s release.
Dragon Age: Dreadwolfis in development.
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