--- description: With any luck, BioWare's third-in-series action roleplaying game will remedy the last installment's over-simplistic combat and drab, recycled locations. title: Dragon Age: Inquisition Trailer image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Business](/section/business/) ## Business Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Tech](/tag/time-section-tech/) ## Tech Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Let's Hope Dragon Age: Inquisition Finally Has Dragon Age Figured Out by [Matt Peckham](/author/matt-peckham/) ## Matt Peckham Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Apr 22, 2014 2:44 PM CUT by [Matt Peckham](/author/matt-peckham/) ## Matt Peckham Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Apr 22, 2014 2:44 PM CUT I’ve liked none of the _Dragon Age_ games. Not even the first. But I’d have to say I enjoyed the first immeasurably more than its lazy sequel, which conjured feelings of loathing by the time I was ticking off the game’s last few achievements and rolling through its embarrassingly recycled cityscapes for the umpteenth time to experience all of its tedious alternative denouements. In October 2009, [when I spoke with](http://www.pcworld.com/article/173329/dragon%5Fage%5Finterview%5Fp1.html "undefined") _Dragon Age: Origins_‘ lead designer, Mike Laidlaw, I asked him about something he’d said elsewhere: He wanted the game to be the HBO of RPGs (he also referenced George R.R. Martin’s “Song of Ice and Fire” books, which hadn’t transitioned to television yet, but everyone already thought of as exemplary): --- > “” --- But when I finally played the game, it felt nothing like the HBO of anything, mistaking mere blood splatter for maturity, and foisted-upon-you consequences for meaningful ones, and overwrought, cliched fantasy banter (by writer David Gaider) _about_ mature topics for artful storytelling. (Fair warning, I’m a literary snob: I’m looking for Cormac McCarthy and Gene Wolfe and Jorges Luis Borges and Alan Moore and China Mieville _all_ the time, and why should games get a pass?) I want to think the best of _Dragon Age: Inquisition_, though Laidlaw returns as lead designer and Gaider as lead writer. It doesn’t feel like a _Dragon Age_ game in the trailer above, though it’s obviously trotting out the horse-beaten amnesiac hero shtick about random-person-you surviving a calamity and having no memory of why. If the gameplay turns out to be intriguing, of course, all bets are off, because I can play the heck out of a _Final Fantasy VII_ or _X_ or _XIII_ (or _Fallout 3_, or _Diablo III_, or _Baldur’s Gate II_) and just let the first-rate game systems override the unimaginative storytelling. In any case, the other pullout you’ll be interested to note here: the trailer confirms _Dragon Age: Inquisition_ will ship on October 7 (for Windows, PS4, Xbox One, PS3 and Xbox 360). MORE: The History of Video Game Consoles – Full ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/71735/lets-hope-dragon-age-inquisition-finally-has-dragon-age-figured-out/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/71735/lets-hope-dragon-age-inquisition-finally-has-dragon-age-figured-out/"},"headline":"Let's Hope Dragon Age: Inquisition Finally Has Dragon Age Figured Out","datePublished":"2014-04-22T14:44:38.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:02:02.269Z","description":"With any luck, BioWare's third-in-series action roleplaying game will remedy the last installment's over-simplistic combat and drab, recycled locations.","url":"https://time.com/71735/lets-hope-dragon-age-inquisition-finally-has-dragon-age-figured-out/","keywords":["Tech","Video Games","Trailers"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Matt Peckham","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/matt-peckham/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-tech/","name":"Tech"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/71735/lets-hope-dragon-age-inquisition-finally-has-dragon-age-figured-out/","name":"Let's Hope Dragon Age: Inquisition Finally Has Dragon Age Figured Out"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"A History of Video Gaming Consoles","description":"The full series on gaming consoles packed into one video for you to watch.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/c8bQ37tV/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-01-08T16:50:03.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/c8bQ37tV.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/71735/lets-hope-dragon-age-inquisition-finally-has-dragon-age-figured-out/","duration":"PT23M45S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/71735/lets-hope-dragon-age-inquisition-finally-has-dragon-age-figured-out/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```