Summary
Video games are like cruise ships. They’re expensive, they take years to build, they have massive turning circles, andif the recent slew of layoffs are anything to go by, they sink a lot. That last one isn’t important for this simile, it’s just difficult to escape the crushing futility of game design these days. Anyway! The point is, video game development is not an agile process, and that can mean it takes half a decade or longer before we see the impact of truly influential games on the industry. When it comes toBaldur’s Gate 3andDragon Age Dreadwolf, I hope that’s true.
Baldur’s Gate 3 must have been an odd game to observe if you had any links toBioWare. The Canadian studio helmed the first two BG titles, and used them as foundations for its original fantasy title,Dragon Age. Along withMass Effect, designed with a similar philosophy, these two self-made IPs BioWare ruled the world for a period in the early ’10s. But the reality of theEAacquisition bit, and while Mass Effect 3 offered an excellent multiplayer mode, Dragon Age Inquisition’s was useless, Mass Effect Andromeda’s was worse (as was everything about the game), andAnthemwas so terrible it could have killed the studio. In today’s environment, it might have.
Dragon Age Dreadwolf Is BioWare’s Comeback Moment
Butwith Dragon Age Dreadwolf rumoured to launch this yearand the newMass Effect cooking away in the background, BioWare is getting back to its feet. And it is returning into a world that always loved it just the way it was - the success of Baldur’s Gate 3 proves that if BioWare had stayed the course instead of moving into money-spinning live-service endeavours, it would still be the king today, not hoping for a shot as the comeback kid.
Dragon Age Dreadwolf will not be influenced by Baldur’s Gate 3. That’s where the cruise ship comes back in. By the time Baldur’s Gate 3 had the fantasy RPG genre with deeper character work than we’d ever seen before, the bones of Dragon Age were already in place. The organs were in place, the muscles were in place. All that was left was the fingernails to be trimmed and the hair to be styled.
The good news isLarianhas been influenced by BioWare itself in both Divinity and Baldur’s Gate 3, so while it remains to be seen if Dragon Age Dreadwolf can hit Baldur’s Gate 3’s heights, Dragon Age will at least scratch that itch. And I need it to - it’snot like I’m going to replay Baldur’s Gate 3 any time soon. I just hope it doesn’t try to cram too much in at the last moment.
Games Need To Learn From Baldur’s Gate In The Right Way
I love Baldur’s Gate 3. It was my Game of the Year last year and the first game I’ve played sinceRed Dead Redemption 2in 2018 that I think could be a major contender for my favourite game of all time. If BioWare’s release schedule were reversed, and it were Mass Effect coming soon and Dreadwolf way off in the distance, I’d be all in on learning as much as possible from Larian’s masterpiece. But right now, it’s too late in the day to change course, and trying to could be disastrous.
As much as I love Baldur’s Gate 3, identifying my pet peeve with the game is easy - the constant updates. Larian is a relatively small company to have made a game that ruled the world, and with so much depth to the game, I don’t begrudge the fact that bugs slipped through the cracks or even appeared freshly formed as other ones were patched out. That’s life in modern gaming. But it wasthe oddly parasocial nature of these updates, leaning into Baldur’s Gate 3 being ‘the kissing sim’ that seemed to devalue what the game had built.
Baldur’s Gate 3 has a thriving community, one propelled by positivity and propped up by fan art. But there is such a thing as too much positivity - the updates seemed to move Baldur’s Gate 3 out of the emotionally heart-wrenching world of tough decisions, contrasting beliefs, and unique storytelling where every choice mattered into Happy Endings R Us.Want Minthara without the murder, because you saw a cool drawing of her? Done.Feelings hurt when companions leave campdue to their authentic reactions to your actions? That’s cool, they’ll stay - otherwise how will you ever finish that fan fiction?
New endings were patched in, characters Flanderised themselves during romantic scenes to live up to the memes of the fandom, and a lot of the edges were sanded off as the groupthink of always online Tumblrites seemed to drive decision making. Baldur’s Gate 3 is too good to be damaged too much by these tweaks, but is Dragon Age? Making those sorts of adjustments - weakening hard decisions to appease stan culture, exaggerating romantic pathways, giving players more leeway for interpersonal conflict - can be done in a year.
If there is anything Dragon Age can feasibly take from Baldur’s Gate 3, it’s that. But it shouldn’t. Dragon Age has a respected legacy and a built-in fandom, but to be a truly successful comeback, Dragon Age needs to light up the world again. It can’t do that if it sees its primary audience as fanfiction authors.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard
WHERE TO PLAY
Dragon Age: The Veilguard is the long-awaited fourth game in the fantasy RPG series from BioWare formerly known as Dragon Age: Dreadwolf. A direct sequel to Inquisition, it focuses on red lyrium and Solas, the aforementioned Dread Wolf.
