The fire’s burning low. The road ahead looks grim. The companion who has spent half your journey needling you clearly has something on their mind, and you’re one or two correct dialogue choices away from getting them to spill. You pick a reply. You feel it land. Then somebody makes a joke about cheese, and the tension breaks.
This is one of the many things the Dragon Age franchise does well. In this series, from Origins to Veilguard, you gather a party of real-feeling companions and grapple with party management. These are also tactical games — games where you need to pause your combat encounters, point at the biggest threat, and hope against hope that your mage remembers she’s standing in a pool of fire. They’re political games, full of nobles and templars quibbling about the fates of their respective territories and teams. And they’re games where consequences stick. A choice you made in a prologue will come back to bite you hours (or entire games) later, usually while you’re just minding your own business collecting elfroot for a salve.
It may be unlikely that we’ll see a new Dragon Age title anytime soon. (Earlier this month, former Dragon Age writer David Gaider said that “the golden days are over.”) Yet there are still campfires worth stopping at. If you miss that feeling of saving Thedas by day and hanging out with your party of oddball companions by night, check out these four upcoming RPGs. Consider this your recruitment screen.
4
Solasta 2
Release date: Early access now; 1.0 TBA
Where to play: Windows PC
You can never keep every companion happy in Dragon Age. Solasta 2 eases you into this never-ending quest for balance by starting you off with your family. You lead the Colwall siblings, orphans from a household tied to a religious order sworn against an evil called Shadwyn. Soon, the siblings travel to a new continent, where the opening city, Caer Mar, comes with rebels, factions, and plenty of trouble.
If you liked pausing Dragon Age to plan every fight, this turn-based tactical RPG (which has been in Steam Early Access since March 2026) offers plenty of occasions to plan. Positioning, line of sight, and high ground decide most battles, and D&D fans will appreciate the chance to use spells like Magic Missile and Shatter to deal damage. Between fights, as you trek your way across Neokos, your role-playing choices will influence your standing with the world’s factions — which, in turn, changes how the world responds to you. Cross the wrong faction, and the merchants may stop selling you the good stuff.
Solasta 2’s Early Access only covers part of Act 1 and comes with a low level cap — you can only get to level 4 at this time. Developer Tactical Adventures says it intends to stay in Early Access for about a year, and 1.0 will raise the cap to 10 and finish the main questline. While you wait, you can play the first game, Solasta: Crown of the Magister. It’s a crunchier D&D experience, so brush up on your spell strategy before you boot it up.
3
Outward 2
Release date: Early access Feb. 8, 2027
Where to play: Windows PC
What if the Dragon Age: Origins prologue cast you as a vagrant with a bad attitude and no plan? In Outward 2, you play an ordinary person in Aurai, a dangerous world where most people never leave their hometown walls. You’ll choose one of three starting scenarios — a miner in the northern mountains of Tramontane, a homeowner in the underground city of Haboob, or a vagrant in Simeon’s Bastion. Then, you’ll get a background and personality traits like Hoarder, Gourmet, or Lone Wolf that change your dialogue, starting gear, and aptitudes.
Surviving Aurai will take more than a sword. Hunger, thirst, exhaustion, and weather threaten you as much as the world’s creatures do…and you don’t get mounts or fast travel to give you a quick way out of a tight bind. This game is more committed to realism (read: suffering) than your usual RPG. Armor weight will change how fast you move. If you want to stay mobile during a fight, you’ll need to drop your backpack. You can wield a different weapon in each hand, like a sword and shield, dual axes, or a mace and pistol, and trainers teach skills for a fee. But you can’t just be focused on survival: Your choices will pull you toward a faction that will shape your story. Will you join a budding mercenary company, a society of historians, or a humanitarian mission? What’ll happen after you do?
Outward 2 will support online and split-screen co-op, which means your companions can also be your IRL friends. While you wait for this title, play the first Outward if you like your fantasy with a side of hypothermia. Regardless, bring a friend. And a warm cloak, because the seasons in Aurai show no mercy.
2
Fable
Release date: Feb. 23, 2027 (Feb. 18 with the Premium Edition)
Where to play: PS5, Windows PC, Xbox Series X
This game’s not out yet, but Albion already has opinions about you. Here, you play as the hero of Briar Hill, “an ordinary person made extraordinary by fate.” From there, it’s up to you to decide what kind of hero you’ll be. Your built-in rival is Isabel, played by Hayley Atwell, a driven, powerful hero on a quest to right a tragic injustice. She opposes you and Humphry, her former guardian. With interpersonal conflict this charged, who needs a world to save?
Dragon Age taught us that the world should remember what you did, and Albion takes the lesson seriously. Your reputation affects how the world’s 1,000+ handcrafted NPCs treat you. That reputation can reshape the world around you and grow your power. Beyond reputation, you can romance villagers, have children with them, and start your own cozy life while chaos reigns above you.
Dragon Age blends dark subject matter with humor very well. Fable seems ready to carry on that particular mission. One of its spells, “Befowl,” turns enemies into chickens (and undead enemies into undead chickens, naturally). Isabel has an injustice to right and you’re standing in her way, so keep that chicken spell handy.
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1
Clockwork Revolution
Release date: 2027
Where to play: Windows PC, Xbox Series X
If you ever wished you could replay your first Dragon Age campaign and fix just one decision, Clockwork Revolution might be your invitation to do just that. Dragon Age gave us choices that follow you from game to game. InXile’s first-person RPG explicitly lets you rewrite your own decisions to answer the question: Would anything change if you could reverse something from your past?
You play Morgan Vanette, a customizable member of the Rotten Row Hooligans gang in Avalon, a steampunk city whose factions run from the slums to the golden mansions. The villain, Lady Ironwood, already rules Avalon, and she’s been using time travel to keep it that way. Vanette and a band of allies set out to turn back the clock and right her wrongs.
Sounds standard, right? The twist, here, is how you go about doing that. You’ll use a device called the Chronometer to change key moments in the past. This sounds excellent in terms of instant gratification, but the effects of those changes threaten to ripple outward. The people closest to you feel it first, and the crew you return to after time shenanigans may differ from the one you left. Your allies, Ulysses, Nazim, Erasmus, Hazel, and Anne, have lives of their own, with stories that don’t revolve around you. If you enjoy political chess, Lady Ironwood gives you a rival to follow. A flying automaton named Prentice will guide you through the branching realities. You’ll build a character with attributes, skills, and gear, hack hostile automatons, and use an ability called Displace to toss an explosive barrel at enemies. Whatever you do, just change the past carefully, because your crew will remember.