The next new Dragon Age game can now be played from start to finish

Dragon Age Dreadwolf, the next Dragon Age game, has entered alpha stages of development and can now be played from start to finish.

It's been many years since the last Dragon Age game--Inquisition was released in 2014, and gaming is due for another major myth-and-magic RPG experience. Luckily for us, BioWare has made significant progress with Dragon Age 4 and the pieces of the game have been put together to create a playable, cohesive game with a narrative story, combat, and character interactions.

"Now, for the first time, we can experience the entire game, from the opening scenes of the first mission to the very end. We can see, hear, feel, and play everything as a cohesive experience," BioWare general manager Gary McKay said in a recent update post.

"Now that we have the ability to do a complete playthrough, we can iterate and polish on the things that matter most to our fans."

McKay is careful to say there's a lot more work to do on Dragon Age Dreadwolf, including tons of polish, bugfixing, and other major game-wide adjustments.

"Of course, the game is not finished by any means, but Alpha is one of the most important game development milestones for a number of reasons. First and foremost, we can now turn our sights toward bringing the visual fidelity to its final form and iterating on gameplay features."

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BioWare re-confirms that Dragon Age 4 will take place in the Tevinter Imperium, more specifically in the capital city of Minrathous, a cruel, coastal metropolis where blood magic is openly practiced.

"It's also exciting to finally be able to bring our fans to parts of the world that we've previously hinted at, but never been able to fully explore--like the city of Minrathous, the capital of the Tevinter Empire."

Past reports indicate that Dreadwolf is to be smaller than Inquisition, but more meaningful in its delivery and impact of character interactions and storytelling.

Dragon Age 4 does not currently have a release date but we should expect it to launch on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S consoles and skip PS4 and Xbox One.

Ex-BioWare producer Mark Darrah predicts that Dragon Age Dreadwolf will not release in EA's Q1 FY24 period.